The author analyzes contemporary rights-based and economic approaches to health care and education in developing countries. He assesses the foundations and uses of social rights in development, outlines an economic approach to improving health and education services, and then highlights the...

Although girls are approximately half the youth population in developing countries, they contribute less than their potential to the economy. The objective of this paper is to quantify the opportunity cost of girls'exclusion from productive employment with the hope that stark figures will lead...

Despite a sharp increase in the share of girls who enroll in, attend, and complete various levels of schooling, an educational gender gap remains in some countries. This paper argues that one explanation for this gender gap is the degree of social exclusion within these countries, as indicated...

The labor market performance in Croatia failed to keep pace with the moderately good overall macroeconomic development in the past few years. Youth, the less well-educated, and women face more difficulties in getting a job with a decent salary. A large part of the difference in regional labor...

This report examines the situation of child labor in Thailand in the last decade. It finds that child labor has decreased significantly, for example, the labor force participation rates of those aged 13-14 years has almost halved since 1990. Despite this decline, 1.6 million children below the...

In this paper we use the Indian National Sample Survey data for 1993-94 to examine the relationship between women's education and labor force participation. While it has been recognized in the literature that education is associated with lower labor force participation for women in South Asia,...

Past research from Third World countries shows that school related factors have stronger effects on student achievement than do family background factors. However this paper finds that prior work suffered from conceptual and methodological flaws, and it suggests that once these shortcomings are...

The author explains whether national variations in curricula content and subject area - as distinct from growth in enrollment or qualitative provisions - have a significant impact on economic development. The study focuses on primary education in 60 nations and assesses the economic impact of an...

After reviewing the literature on repetition (students repeating grades in schools) in developing countries, the authors examine factors related to repetition in Bolivia and Guatemala. They develop a model to estimate the incidence and determinants of repetition. The use multivariate logistic...

The relative costs of and returns to VTE (Vocational and Technical Education) and general education in Peru are investigated here. The paper is composed as follows. Following a brief introduction, section 2 describes the system of education in Peru and changes that have occurred in this system...