The Human Capital Index explores the contributors and inhibitors to the development and deployment of a healthy, educated and productive labour force, and has generated the information contained in this Report. The Index provides country rankings that allow for effective comparisons across...

This paper provides an explanation for the observed persistence in income inequality across households in terms limited parental altruism. It is postulated that the degree of parental altruism is ‘limited’ by the financial status of the parent. [CDE WP 101].

Adolescent fertility in low- and middle-income countries presents a severe impediment to development and can lead to school dropout, lost productivity, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty. However, there is debate about whether adolescent pregnancy is a problem in and of itself or...

Using product-level data on exports from different cities within China, this paper investigates the contributing factors to the rising export sophistication. [WP no. 226].

In this paper, with empirical data, the Capabilities Approach to identify 'conversion factors' that are not typically addressed in the utility approach is used. The two approaches are juxtaposed to examine how institutions such as caste and religion mediate access and returns to education of men...

Available evidence suggests high intergenerational correlation of economic status, and persistent disparities in health status between the rich and the poor. This paper proposes a novel mechanism linking the two. Health human capital is introduced into a two-period overlapping generations model....

Is there a gender gap in mathematics across many low- and middle-income countries? A detailed, comparable test score data is used to analyze this. Micro level data on school performance linked to household demographics shows that the gender gap appears to increase with age. It is shown that...