The pattern of economic rates of return to investments in education can help us to understand the benefits of schooling. It was common knowledge that the returns to education were highest for the primary level of education and lower for subsequent levels. Recent evidence suggests that the...

With an estimated 724 million extreme poor people living in developing countries, and the world's demographics bifurcating into an older North and a younger South, there are substantial economic incentives and benefits for people to migrate. There are also important market and regulatory...

This paper examines the effects of a government-sponsored apprenticeship training program designed to address high levels of youth unemployment in Ghana. The study exploits randomized access to the program to examine the short-run effects of apprenticeship training on labor market outcomes. The...

Internal labor migration rates in India have been largely static and low in recent times compared with those in other countries. This is a cause for concern because internal migration for economic reasons can promote the agglomeration of economic activity in more productive locations and...

This policy note is a diagnostic of the state of Nigerian skills and human capital. It seeks to understand the kinds and levels of human capital that Nigeria possesses to support its efforts toward economic competitiveness over the next two decades. It also looks at inefficiencies of the...

This report complements the recent World Bank publication, Growing United: Upgrading Europe's Convergence Machine (Bodewig, C., Ridao-Cano, C., 2018). The Growing United report highlights that, while the European Union is still the "convergence machine" that fosters an unparalleled depth and...

This report sheds light on the extent to which earnings mobility and inequality of opportunity in access to the labor market have contributed to the increase in earnings inequality in Mauritius. Among the most important concerns about rising inequality is a situation where people become trapped...

Morocco has steered significant resources towards large investments in economic sectors identified as strategic to growth, and for increased productivity and value addition. Despite Morocco's strikingly high investment rate, one of the highest in the world at an average of thirty-four percent of...

The labor market of the Turkish Cypriot community (TCc) is characterized by low participation and low employment rates, especially among youth. A series of World Bank reports on the Turkish Cypriot (TC) labor market and higher education sector between 2016 and 2019 found a mismatch between the...

Tunisia is expected to enter a recession in 2020 as a result of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the slowdown in production due to no demand, and decline in tourism. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged only 1.8 percent per year in 2011-2018 compared to 4 percent in 2001-2005 and...