We present evidence that the practice of holding back poorly performing students affects estimates of the impact of class size on student outcomes based on within-school variation of cohort size over time. This type of variation is commonly used to identify class size effects. We build a...

We use international student assessment data on more than 22,000 students from six European countries and a regression discontinuity design to investigate whether the transition into daylight saving time (DST) affects elementary students’ test performance in the week after the time change. We...

Most school systems grant teachers and school principals considerable discretion in grade retention decisions. This paper argues that schools can exploit this discretion by selectively retaining students to reduce class size which potentially has important implications for public spending on...

This paper examines the effects of Asian segregation on academic performance of non-Asian students in New York City public primary schools. We use plausibly exogenous variation in the share of Asian students stemming from a fertility shock among the Asian population in the year of the Dragon,...

Since their first implementation in 2000, the PISA studies have attracted public attention and spurred the demand for institutional changes in schooling systems. The introduction of standardized student tests and of incentives for schools and teachers are notable examples of such institutional...

We present evidence that the practice of holding back poorly performing students affects estimates of the impact of class size on student outcomes based on within-school variation of cohort size over time. This type of variation is commonly used to identify class size effects. We build a...

Most school systems grant teachers and school principals considerable discretion in grade retention decisions. This paper argues that schools can exploit this discretion by selectively retaining students to reduce class size which potentially has important implications for public spending on...

This paper examines the effects of Asian segregation on students' academic performance in New York City primary schools. We use exogenous variation in the share of Asian students across cohorts and schools stemming from a fertility shock among Asian population in the Chinese year of the Dragon....

This paper explores the relative roles of quality of schools and household characteristics on the household's choice of school in India. I use a standard binary choice logit model to estimate the e↵ect of income on private school enrolment after controlling for school attributes and other...

About 10% of primary school students in developing countries have poor vision, but very few of them wear glasses. Almost no research examines the impact of poor vision on school performance, and simple OLS estimates could be biased because studying harder may adversely affects one's vision. This...