The impact of class size on educational mechanisms, health, and teacher hiring

This project aims to understand how class size impacts educational mechanisms, health and teacher hiring.

The project´s first study combines detailed administrative and survey data from Spain to investigate how class size affects (among other things) classroom environment, teaching methods, parental involvement and student well-being.

The project´s second study investigates the health effects of class size on students, parents, and teachers, along with its impact on their labor supply.

The project´s third study investigates how Swedish schools hire new teachers when receiving extra funding to reduce class sizes and examines its consequences for students´ outcomes.We leverage rich administrative and comprehensive survey data to exploit policy reforms that create quasi-experimental variation in class size.

We use data from Spain and Sweden covering preschool, primary and secondary education students.The project is planned over three years, involving four steps: i) collecting and cleaning Swedish register data on education, health, and the labor market; ii) analyzing the data; 3) writing scientific research manuscripts; iv) publishing and sharing results with the academic community and key stakeholders through conferences and other channels.Our research will be relevant to academics, policymakers, and educational stakeholders concerned with whether – and how – class size reduction policies could pay off.

Our findings could impact Swedish and Spanish education policy.