As China consolidates its rapid economic gains and continues its drive toward a market-oriented environment, the country's international competitiveness will depend greatly on the quality of its human resources. China has made impressive gains in human resource development in the past two...

The authors explore differences in education in rich and poor countries by first systematically documenting the relationship between per capita GNP and various indicators of educational development. They then exploit a simple accounting identity relating the availability of resources to their...

The transition from a centrally planned to a market economy is likely to have a strong impact on the labor market, on relative earnings, and on returns to education. Major economic reforms in Vietnam since 1986 (the policy known as"Doi Moi") have included a number of measures to liberalize the...

Vietnam has achieved remarkably high rates of school enrollment and has maintained good social indicators (infant and under-five mortality rates, life expectancy, fertility rate, child nutrition, and access to basic services) compared to other countries with similar low income per capita. The...

The authors examine the impact of ethnic segmentation in education on educational outcomes. Between 1991 and the late 1990s, the Albanian Kosovar population received education services in an informal system parallel to the official one. Using the 2000 Kosovo LSMS Survey data, the authors exploit...

Using primary data from the health and education ministries, and household survey data from the Ghana Statistical Service, the authors analyze equity, and efficiency issues in public spending on health, and education in Ghana in the 1990s. Public expenditures in the education sector, declined in...

Research shows that education has played a crucial role in raising levels of earnings and that returns to education in Mexico have increased, particularly in higher education and in the upper tail of the conditional earnings distribution. The authors examine patterns of public spending on...

Preliminary evidence suggests that the rates of return to education in Venezuela have been declining since the 1970s. The authors rigorously estimate the returns to education in Venezuela for the period 1992-2002, and link them to earlier available estimates from the 1980s. They use consistent...

To achieve its goal of full enrollment of children aged six to eleven by 1990, and children aged six to fourteen by 1995, India must increase its enrollment from less than 80 percent to more than 100 percent in 10 years. Sustaining universal primary education also means reducing the high dropout...

Cote d'Ivoire spends more of its budget (42 percent) on education than any other country in the world. The purpose of this paper is to present an economic assessment of vocational and technical education (VTE) within the country. This assessment takes a three-pronged approach. First, it studies...