This book aims to contribute to the World Bank's education agenda by communicating research findings on the impact of education quality on economic growth. Eric Hanushek and Ludger Wößmann show that indeed the quality of education, rather than mere access to education, is what impacts economic...

Over the last ten years, Indonesia has continued to make significant progress in improving educational opportunities for all its citizens. The purpose of this report is to provide an assessment of the national school grants program, Bantuan Operasional Sekolah (BOS), and its contribution to...

Educating children is a priority across the globe, but developing countries can face enormous challenges. In Pakistans Sindh province, only about half of primary school age children go to school, making education a priority for the Sindh government. Through the International Development...

The adverse impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is being disproportionately borne by women, further exacerbating the wide gender inequities in Myanmar. From food security, shortages in finances and the burden of caretaking responsibilities, women have been disproportionately affected...

"Are natural resources a blessing or a curse? Bravo-Ortega and De Gregorio present a model in which natural resources have a positive effect on the level of income and a negative effect on its growth rate. The positive and permanent effect on income implies a welfare gain. There is a growth...

"Loayza and Rancire study the apparent contradiction between two strands of the literature on the effects of financial intermediation on economic activity. On the one hand, the empirical growth literature finds a positive effect of financial depth as measured by, for instance, private domestic...

"While providing the most reliable method of evaluating social programs, randomized experiments in industrial and developing countries alike are accompanied by political risks and ethical issues that jeopardize the chances of adopting them. Buddelmeyer and Skoufias use a unique data set from...