Replication data for: Class-Size Caps, Sorting, and the Regression-Discontinuity Design

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. (JEL D12, I21, I28, O15)本文探讨了学校的班级规模选择与家庭的择校行为，如何影响基于回归断点（regression-discontinuity）方法的班级规模对学生学业成果的影响估计结果。本文构建了一个模型，其中学校受班级规模上限约束，且教室数量需满足整数约束，同时高收入家庭会选择就读质量更高的学校。该模型的核心预测在智利教育市场化改革的相关数据中得到了验证：受班级规模上限约束的学校会通过调整学费（或调整招生规模）来避免新增一间教室，这会使得招生规模与家庭特征之间的关系出现断点，从而违背了回归断点研究设计的底层假设。(JEL D12, I21, I28, O15)