American Economic Review Vol. 99 No. 1 2009
Class-Size Caps, Sorting, and the Regression-Discontinuity Design
Abstract
This paper examines how schools' choices of class size and households' choices of schools affect regression-discontinuity-based estimates of the effect of class size on student outcomes. We build a model in which schools are subject to a class-size cap and an integer constraint on the number of classrooms, and higher-income households sort into higher-quality schools. The key prediction, borne out in data from Chile's liberalized education market, is that schools at the class-size cap adjust prices (or enrollments) to avoid adding an additional classroom, which generates discontinuities in the relationship between enrollment and household characteristics, violating the assumptions underlying regression-discontinuity research designs.
- DOI
- 10.1257/aer.99.1.179
- Volume
- 99
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 179-215
- Language
- en
- Sources
- openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref