Heterogeneous Class Size Effects: New Evidence from a Panel of University Students

Abstract

Using administrative records from a UK university, we present evidence on the effects of class size on students' test scores. We estimate non-linear class size effects controlling for unobserved heterogen-eity of students and faculty. We find that: (i) at the average class size, the effect size is -0.108; (ii) the effect size is negative and significant only for the smallest and largest ranges of class sizes and zero in intermediate class sizes; (iii) students at the top of the test score distribution are more affected by changes in class size, especially when class sizes are very large. © The Author(s). Journal compilation © Royal Economic Society 2010.