This paper examines whether an expansion in the supply of public preschool crowds out private enrollment, using rich data for municipalities in Brazil from 2000-2006, where federal transfers to local governments change discontinuously with given population thresholds. Results from a...

Lottery-based identification strategies offer potential for generating the next generation of evidence on U.S. early education programs. Our collaborative network of five research teams applying this design in early education and methods experts has identified six challenges that need to be...

Research documents that parental beliefs influence early investments in children, which, in turn, determine early human capital and, eventually, other skills children acquire in later stages of the lifecycle, such as literacy. Our paper reports the results of an experimental evaluation of the...

This chapter presents an integrated economic approach that organizes and interprets the evidence on child development. It also discusses the indicators of child well-being that are used in international comparisons. Recent evidence on child development is summarized, and policies to promote...

This paper describes a policy experiment implemented in Costa Rica to increase learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experiment provided parents of preschool students with text messages to support their children's learning at home. After 15 weeks of intervention, the cognitive skills of...

When considering issues of measuring welfare beyond gross domestic product (GDP), a key ongoing, but unfinished, agenda concerns how to measure the outputs of goods and services which are "free at the point of delivery". Public services such as schools and health services are major examples of...

We evaluate a political reform in Portugal that introduced individual teacher performancerelated pay and tournaments in public schools. We find that the focus on individual performance decreased student achievement, as measured in national exams, and increased grade inflation. The results follow...

As part of the restructuring of the education system since doi moi or Renovation in 1989, the government of Vietnam has implemented several policy changes. These include transforming some public institutions into private ones, promoting the establishment of "people's" and community educational...

This article summarizes the elements that are in common in most economists' recommendations on how to raise productivity in Canada. Some of the recommendations require governments to tackle issues such as removing interprovincial trade barriers and reforming employment insurance where firmly...

Die Studie stellt die Bruttolohn- und Tariflohnentwicklung von Arbeitnehmern in der Privatwirtschaft und Angestellten im öffentlichen Dienst seit der Wiedervereinigung gegenüber. Dabei werden auch Sonderleistungen (wie Urlaubs- und Weihnachtsgeld, Überstundenzuschläge usw.), flexible...