Working Paper: NBER ID: w18369
Authors: Victor Lavy
Abstract: This paper uses a natural experiment in Israel to assess the impact of school teaching resources and how it is used, ‘time-on-task’, on academic achievements and non-cognitive outcomes. It exploits variation induced by a change in the funding formula that reduced instructional resources funding for some schools and increased them for others. The results suggest that increased school resources and students' spending more time at school and on key tasks all lead to increased academic achievements with no behavioral costs. Separate estimations of the effect of increasing subject-specific instructional time per week also show positive and significant effects on math, science, and English test scores. However, there are no cross effects of additional instructional time across subjects. This evidence is robust to using different identification strategies. The evidence also shows that a longer school week increases the time that students spend on homework without reducing social and school satisfaction and without increasing school violence.
Keywords: education; school resources; academic achievement; Israel; policy experiment
JEL Codes: I21; J18; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Increased school resources (I23) | Positive impact on academic achievement (I24) |
| Longer school weeks (I20) | Positive impact on academic achievement (I24) |
| Additional instructional time in core subjects (A21) | Significant improvements in test scores (I21) |
| Increased instructional resources (I24) | No cross-subject effects (C90) |
| Longer school weeks (I20) | Increased time spent on homework (D29) |
| Longer school weeks (I20) | No negative impact on overall satisfaction with school (I24) |
| Longer school weeks (I20) | No increase in instances of school violence or bullying (I20) |