High-quality impact evaluations, including randomized experiments, are increasingly popular, but cannot always inform resource allocation decisions unless the costs of interventions are considered alongside their effects. Cost-effectiveness analysis is a straightforward but under-utilized tool...

In addition to the morbidity and mortality concerns of outdoor air pollution, studies have shown that air pollution also generates problems for children`s cognitive performance and human capital formation. High concentrations of pollutants can affect children’s learning process by exacerbating...

This paper presents evidence of the relationship between the disparity in the academic performance of boys and girls in Colombia and the country’s excessively high school dropout rates. By using the OLS and trimming for bounds techniques, and based on data derived from the PISA 2009 database,...

This paper uses a natural policy experiment to estimate how changes in the costs of engaging in criminal activity may influence adolescents' decisions in crime participation and school attendance. The study finds that, after an exogenous decrease in the severity of judicial punishment imposed on...

The Environment and Safeguards Group (ESG) of the IDB has examined how potential environmental and social risks of major road improvement investments in natural resource rich and socio-culturally diverse "frontier" regions have been identified and addressed in various parts of South and Central...

The Environment and Safeguards Group (ESG) of the IDB has examined how potential environmental and social risks of major road improvement investments in natural resource rich and socio-culturally diverse "frontier" regions have been identified and addressed in various parts of South and Central...