New technologies, globalization, the information revolution, and labor market changes have affected the world economy on an unprecedented scale. As a consequence, the demand for a skilled workforce has increased, world trade and migration have intensified, and the divide between the haves and...

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...

While the Philippines has achieved remarkable progress in raising the education level of its labor force, the standard proxy for educational attainment, years of formal schooling, is increasingly inadequate as a measure of workforce skills. About one-third of employer's report being unable to...

While the Philippines has achieved remarkable progress in raising the education level of its labor force, the standard proxy for educational attainment years of formal schooling is increasingly inadequate as a measure of workforce skills. About one-third of employers report being unable to fill...

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...

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...

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...

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...

A significant body of research demonstrates that teachers and the quality of their teaching are crucial components of student learning. Many teachers in resource-poor environments have limited knowledge, skills, or motivation. Some impact evaluations have shown promising results from...

Do matching frictions affect youth employment in developing countries? This paper studies a randomized controlled trial of job fairs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The job fairs match firms with a representative sample of young, educated job-seekers. The meetings at the fairs create very few jobs:...