(Note: Abridged abstract) Income contingent loans (ICL) are policy instruments that can enable participation in activities that yield both public and private benefits, with repayment conditions that promote equity, remove the risk of loan default, smooth consumption, and thus increase utility...

Child care and education are important inputs in the human capital production function. The research of Nobel prize winner James Heckman shows that skills are built from the early childhood on and increase the returns of later educational inputs, in short: skill begets skill. Therefore, it is...