A variety of theories of skill formation suggest that investments in schooling and other dimensions of human capital will have lower returns if children do not have adequate levels of cognitive and social skills at an early age. This paper analyzes the impact of a randomized cash transfer...

There is considerable evidence that young children in many developing countries suffer from profound deficits in nutrition, health, fine and gross motor skills, cognitive development, and socio-emotional development. Early childhood development (ECD) outcomes are important markers of the welfare...

Early childhood experiences lay the foundation for outcomes later in life. Policy makers in developing countries face a dual challenge of promoting access to and quality of early childhood development services, but evidence on how to manage this trade-off is scarce. This paper studies two...

This paper uses three waves of longitudinal data to examine the impact of expanding access to preschool services in rural areas of Indonesia on two cohorts of children. One cohort was children aged 4 at the start of the project and was immediately eligible for project-provided services when they...

Using data they collected in rural Burkina Faso, the authors examine how children's cognitive abilities influence resource constrained households' decisions to invest in their education. This paper uses a direct measure of child ability for all primary school-aged children, regardless of current...

Poor rural women in the developing world spend considerable time collecting water. How then do they respond to improved access to water infrastructure? Does it increase their participation in income earning market-based activities? Does it improve the health and education outcomes of their...

Early childhood development is a critical, but often neglected, phase of human development. Shortfalls in early childhood development have historically been a challenge in Morocco, with children facing unequal opportunities to develop because of the circumstances of their birth. This paper...

This paper examines the potential for bringing together cash transfer and parenting programs focused on child stimulation to boost child development, particularly for children ages 0-3 years. The paper reviews the rationale for linking both types of programs and the evidence to date on the...

Arsenic contamination in shallow groundwater aquifers remains a major barrier to providing access to safe drinking water in Bangladesh. Chronic exposure to arsenic has been shown to cause serious health impacts, including various cancers, skin lesions, neurological damage, heart disease, and...