Class size reductions are popular with parents, teachers and politicians. In recent years various contributors to the public debate have increasingly expressed the opinion that class size does not matter. For example, the popular science author Gladwell (2013) uses class size reduction as an...

Using a comprehensive administrative database we exploit independent quasi-experimental methods to estimate the effect of class size on student achievement in Norway. The first method is based on a maximum class size rule in the spirit Angrist and Lavy (1999). The second method exploits...

A large school consolidation reform in the Netherlands changed minimum school size rules underlying public funding. The supply of schools decreased by 15 percent, but this varied considerably across municipalities. We find that reducing the number of schools by 10 percent increases pupils'...