Battistina, E. and Meronie, E. (2016) "Should we increase instruction time in low achieving schools? Evidence from Southern Italy," Economics of Education Review, 55, 39-56

• We study the effect of lengthen instruction time on mathematics and language scores.
• Identification relies on a difference-in-differences assumption and we investigate both average and quantile effects.
• We find a positive effect for mathematics but not for language.
• Effects for mathematics are driven by the best students in schools with low socio-economic background.
• In the least problematic schools, more time spent at school on activities in language has negative effects on mathematics.