PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Borgen, Nicolai T.
AU  - Kirkebøen, Lars J.
AU  - Kotsadam, Andreas
AU  - Raaum, Oddbjørn
TI  - Do Funds for More Teachers Improve Student Outcomes?
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.0523-12892R2
DP  - 2025 Mar 07
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0523-12892R2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2025/02/28/jhr.0523-12892R2.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2025/02/28/jhr.0523-12892R2.full
AB  - We investigate the effects of a large-scale Norwegian intervention that provided extra teachers to 166 lower secondary schools with relatively high student-teacher ratios and low average grades. We exploit these two margins using a regression discontinuity setup and find that the intervention reduced the student-teacher ratio by around 10%, without crowding out other school resources. The extra funding did not improve test scores and medium-term academic outcomes, and we can reject even small positive effects. We do find that more teachers improved the school environment, including self-reported student well-being, but with the largest impact on aspects of the school environment most weakly associated with better academic outcomes.