Are There Any Class Size Effects on Early Career Earnings in West Germany?

Abstract

The paper analyses the effect of class size, which stands proxy for school quality, on early career earnings. Using confidential district level information from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), it is demonstrated that class size has no discernible effect on early career earnings. This finding is robust to changes in specification and the choice of sub-samples. The economic literature focused so far mainly on the US and the UK. This paper confirms this literature and adds new evidence to the growing empirical literature on this issue from Germany.