The Class size debate and educational mechanisms: Editorial
这篇社论讨论班级规模作为教育资源分配政策的受欢迎程度与有效性争议，帮助读者了解经济学文献中的研究观点，形成独立判断。
There is much public concern about the allocation of resources to educational institutions. Politicians are eager to demonstrate that they provide adequate resources for the acquisition of knowledge, in particular at the primary and secondary school level. From the political point of view, an ideal measure of increasing resources should be both easy to implement and visible. The reduction of class sizes comes close to fulfilling both these objectives. It is easily the most popular policy for school improvements in the US, and it has seen an increasing popularity among UK academic educationalists and political advisors. Whether it is also effective is an issue of an ongoing debate in the academic profession. This controversy is far from being resolved, and it is sometimes difficult to separate out academic views based on empirical and well‐researched evidence, and positions that are ideologically rather than evidence‐based. This Feature aims to inform about research and views in the economics literature, and to shed light on the problems that arise when establishing the effect of class size measures on performance. It provides the background for the reader to form their own independent view on the issue.