Experimental Estimates of Education Production Functions
Abstract
This paper analyzes data on 11,600 students and their teachers who were randomly assigned to different size classes from kindergarten through third grade. Statistical methods are used to adjust for nonrandom attrition and transitions between classes. The main conclusions are (1) on average, performance on standardized tests increases by four percentile points the first year students attend small classes; (2) the test score advantage of students in small classes expands by about one percentile point per year in subsequent years; (3) teacher aides and measured teacher characteristics have little effect; (4) class size has a larger effect for minority students and those on free lunch; (5) Hawthorne effects were unlikely.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Angrist, J. D., & Krueger, A. B. (2001) · Journal of Economic Perspectives · doi:10.1257/jep.15.4.69 · Cited by 2,355 · see citing works
Self-citationMeasuring the Impacts of Teachers II: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood
Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., & Rockoff, J. E. (2014) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.104.9.2633 · Cited by 1,717 · see citing works
How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project Star
Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., Hilger, N., Saez, E., Schanzenbach, D. W., & Yagan, D. (2011) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/qje/qjr041 · Cited by 1,514 · see citing works
Kraft, M. A., Blazar, D., & Hogan, D. (2018) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.3102/0034654318759268 · Cited by 1,202 · see citing works
Identification and Inference in Nonlinear Difference-in-Differences Models
Athey, S., & Imbens, G. W. (2006) · Econometrica · doi:10.1111/j.1468-0262.2006.00668.x · Cited by 1,084 · see citing works
School Finance Reform and the Distribution of Student Achievement
Lafortune, J., Rothstein, J., & Schanzenbach, D. W. (2018) · American Economic Journal: Applied Economics · doi:10.1257/app.20160567 · Cited by 415 · see citing works
Figlio, D., Rush, M., & Yin, L. (2013) · Journal of Labor Economics · doi:10.1086/669930 · Cited by 367 · see citing works
Lavy, V. (2015) · The Economic Journal · doi:10.1111/ecoj.12233 · Cited by 369 · see citing works
Learning in One-to-One Laptop Environments: A Meta-Analysis and Research Synthesis
Zheng, B., Warschauer, M., Lin, C.-H., & Chang, C. (2016) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.3102/0034654316628645 · Cited by 312 · see citing works
The Hidden Costs of Teacher Turnover
Sorensen, L. C., & Ladd, H. F. (2020) · AERA Open · doi:10.1177/2332858420905812 · Cited by 284 · see citing works
Charter Schools in Eight States: Effects on Achievement, Attainment, Integration, and Competition
Zimmer, R., Gill, B., Booker, K., Lavertu, S., Sass, T., & Witte, J. (2009) · doi:10.7249/mg869 · Cited by 264 · see citing works
Dynarski, S., Hyman, J., & Schanzenbach, D. W. (2013) · Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · doi:10.1002/pam.21715 · Cited by 223 · see citing works
Early to rise? The effect of daily start times on academic performance
Edwards, F. (2012) · Economics of Education Review · doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.07.006 · Cited by 170 · see citing works
Papay, J. P., Taylor, E. S., Tyler, J. H., & Laski, M. E. (2020) · American Economic Journal: Economic Policy · doi:10.1257/pol.20170709 · Cited by 148 · see citing works
Papay, J., Taylor, E., Tyler, J., & Laski, M. (2016) · doi:10.3386/w21986 · Cited by 148
Information and Employee Evaluation: Evidence from a Randomized Intervention in Public Schools
Rockoff, J. E., Staiger, D. O., Kane, T. J., & Taylor, E. S. (2012) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.102.7.3184 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Cook, P., Dodge, K., Farkas, G., Fryer, R., Guryan, J., Ludwig, J., Mayer, S., Pollack, H., & Steinberg, L. (2014) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w19862 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Bayer, A., Grossman, J. B., & DuBois, D. L. (2015) · Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1002/jcop.21693 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Chapter 9 Why Has Black–White Skill Convergence Stopped?
Neal, D. (2006) · Handbook of the Economics of Education · doi:10.1016/s1574-0692(06)01009-9 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Taylor, E. (2014) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.06.002 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
A framework for learning from null results
Jacob, R. T., Doolittle, F., Kemple, J., & Somers, M.-A. (2019) · Educational Researcher · doi:10.3102/0013189x19891955 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Translating standardized effects of education programs into more interpretable metrics
Baird, M. D., & Pane, J. F. (2019) · Educational Researcher · doi:10.3102/0013189x19848729 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
The Educational Impacts of School Phone Bans: Evidence from Brazil
Lichand, G., Moreno-Louzada, L., da Costa, T., & Gentzkow, M. (2026) · doi:10.2139/ssrn.6824971 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Krueger, A. B.
- Affiliations
- National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
- Corresponding author
- Krueger, A. B.
- Venue
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1999-05-01
- Volume
- 114
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 497-532
- ISSN
- 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-4650
- OpenAlex
- W2156471102
- Cited by
- 1,120
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 23 · 2025: 46 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 52 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 54 · 2015: 52 · 2014: 51 · 2013: 49 · 2012: 53
- FWCI
- 140.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Environments and Student Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Keywords
- class size, small class size, education production function, academic performance, standardized test scores, teaching assistants, teacher characteristics, minority students, attrition, Hawthorne effect, early grades
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
