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...

It has long been recognised by observers of public health and population policy that the nutritional condition of individual mothers and children, and the fertility histories of individual women, are strongly associated with the position or status of those individuals in their society. It is now...

Returns to investment in education based on human capital theory have been estimated since the late 1950s. In the 40-plus year history of estimates of returns to investment in education, there have been several reviews of the empirical results in attempts to establish patterns. Many more...

Unrealized potential exists for increasing accountability and transparency in Chilean tertiary education by allocating resources based on achieved results rather than historical precedence and political negotiation. Against this background, the authors profile approaches to results-based funding...

The development of the institutional capacity to create and evaluate economic policies remains a critical need-and constraint-in most transition economies if they are to complete the successful passage to fully functioning market economies. To take an active role in the transition process,...

The responsiveness to information is thought to be one channel through which education affects health outcomes. The author tests this hypothesis by examining the effectiveness of an information campaign that aims at preventing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda. Previous studies in the...

World Bank project experience on what works to improve women's access to tertiary education is so limited that it may be premature to draw firm conclusions. Many of the projects with interesting multiple interventions are ongoing. But two conclusions emerge. First, the most essential factor for...

In Eastern European countries in large social sectors such as education, inefficiency and technical deficiencies are the legacy of the old command economy. The authors examine the technical efficiency of classroom use (defined as the number of classes per classroom in one transitional economy --...

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...