Education is a key aspect of development economics. The success of schools is determined by important factors such as socio-economic conditions, incentives, choice, enrollment, and class size. Columbia professor Leigh Linden has been working with MIT economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo on "Remedying Education: Evidence From Two Randomized Experiments in India," a revealing study of how a program of educational innovation that involves a temporary reduction of class size can have a marked impact on student performance. In experiments conducted in India, students from impoverished sectors of the population were given literacy and remedial classes combined with a two-hour class on computer games during which time the class size was reduced. It was found that children who did not avail of the program did not perform as well as those who did, despite the reduced class size.

Columbia professors Miguel Urquiola and Eric Verhoogen have also explored the effects of class size on student achievement, specifically in the developing economies of South America. In "Class size and Sorting in Market Equilibrium: Theory and Evidence" they studied schools in the Chilean educational market which operate with fewer governmental restrictions, focusing on the relationship between class size and the household income of the students. Their findings showed an inverse relationship between the two.

Abhijit Banerjee, Shawn Cole, Esther Duflo and Leigh Linden, "Remedying Education: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments in India". Quarterly Journal of Economics (forthcoming).

Miguel Urquiola and Eric Verhoogen, "Class size and Sorting in Market Equilibrium: Theory and Evidence". September 2006.