Early grade literacy skills are crucial for children's future education and ultimately their contribution to human capital formation and economic development. A significant challenge in development is identifying low-cost interventions to improve early literacy skills in contexts characterized...

This report examines one of the most influential forces in any society, one that can contribute both to bridging differences or to deepening divides among people: skills. The skills that people have when they enter the workforce and that they can build on later in their work life determine to a...

A variety of approaches to delineate metropolitan areas have been developed. Systematic comparisons of these approaches in terms of the urban landscape that they generate are however few. This paper aims to fill this gap. The paper focuses on Indonesia and makes use of the availability of data...

As preferential trade agreements are growing in number and depth, assessment of their economic impacts has become more important to inform policy-makers facing a multitude of potential preferential trade agreements. This paper provides novel ex ante estimates of the impacts of two key...

This paper provides novel evidence on the impact of changes in energy prices on manufacturing performance in two large developing economies-Indonesia and Mexico. It finds that unlike increases in electricity prices, which harm plants' performance, fuel price hikes result in higher productivity...

Access to primary care during early life can have substantial benefits in developing countries. This study evaluates the long-run impact of the Village Midwife Program in Indonesia. It utilizes the roll-out-variation of the program and link individual background and community characteristics in...

This study seeks to examine gender gaps and disability issues in education in Indonesia, and to suggest policy actions as well as future analytical and operational work to address these differences. Field visits were conducted to uncover drivers of gender differences, as well as issues of social...

Does democratization promote economic competition? This paper documents that the disruption of political connections associated with Suharto's fall had a modest pro-competitive effect on Indonesian manufacturing industries in which his family had extensive business interests. Firms with...

This paper examines the longer-term impact of a project that expanded access to playgroup services in rural Indonesia. It compares the outcomes of two cohorts of children who were exposed to the same intervention at different points in time. One cohort was eligible to access playgroups during...

This paper studies the sustainability of early childhood education centers established under a large-scale, donor-funded project in rural Indonesia. Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data shows that 86 percent of the centers continued to provide preschool services three years after...