Progress in educational development in the world since 1900 has been slow and uneven between countries. Providing basic education for all children in developing countries has been and remains an unmet challenge of governments and international organizations alike. This is in sharp contrast to...

After reviewing the literature on repetition (students repeating grades in schools) in developing countries, the authors examine factors related to repetition in Bolivia and Guatemala. They develop a model to estimate the incidence and determinants of repetition. The use multivariate logistic...

The author updates compilations of rate of return estimates to investment in education published since 1985 - and discusses methodological issues surrounding those estimates. Some key patterns: among the three main levels of education, primary education continues to exhibit the highest social...

Using historical census data and the latest household surveys, the authors investigate changes in female employment in Latin America, the factors that determine women's participation in the labor force, and the reasons for the gap between men's and women's earnings. The authors find, to their...

Returns to investment in education based on human capital theory have been estimated since the late 1950s. In the 40-plus year history of estimates of returns to investment in education, there have been several reviews of the empirical results in attempts to establish patterns. Many more...

The authors use household survey data for 18 Latin American countries to assess earnings differentials by level of education, and to assess how these differentials changed in the 1980s. Introducing the cost of education allows them to estimate private and social rates of return on investments on...

Indigenous groups are often associated with poverty and so are low levels of education. Guatemala and Bolivia are the two Latin American countries in which the ethnic part of the population is proportionately greatest, with Bolivia being more schooled than Guatemala. So the author tried to...

In the mid 1980s, half of Colombia's rural schools did not offer complete primary education and more than half of rural children between the ages of 7 and 9 had never attended school. Unitary schools - multigrade classrooms taught by one teacher - were established in the early 1960s in isolated...

Data from household surveys of 12 Latin American countries were used to assess how teachers'salaries compare with those of workers in other occupations. The results show that salaries vary among countries, ranging from an apparent 35 percent underpayment in Bolivia (compared with the contol...