The youth unemployment rate is exceptionally high in the developing world. Because quality of education is arguably one of the most important determinants of youth’s labor force participation, governments worldwide have responded by creating job training and placement services programs....

The Russia Trust Fund for Financial Literacy and Education was set up to support the advancement of financial literacy and capability in low- and middle-income countries. Established in 2008 with funding provided by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Trust Fund enabled the...

The AIDS crisis in Africa and elsewhere compels us to design appropriate assistance policies for households experience a death. Policies should take into account and strengthen existing household coping strategies, rather than duplicate or undermine them. The authors investigate the nature of...

The authors extend the recent literature on the link between financial development and economic volatility by focusing on the channels through which the development of financial intermediaries affects economic volatility. Their theoretical model predicts that well-developed financial...

This paper presents findings from the impact evaluation of the Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (EPAG) project in Liberia. The EPAG project was launched by the Liberian Ministry of Gender and Development in 2009 with the goal of increasing the employment and income of...

This paper reviews the main challenges facing countries in attempting to improve labor market outcomes among youth, focusing on the issues that became starkly visible during the recent financial crisis. In order to better identify and set up human development interventions, the paper proposes an...

Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- About the Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- PART I Introduction and Framing -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Objective of This Volume -- Structure -- Summary -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 2 A Conceptual Framework -- Overview -- Shocks, Crises,...

The youth unemployment rate is exceptionally high in developing countries. Because the quality of education is arguably one of the most important determinants of youth's labor force participation, governments worldwide have responded by creating job training and placement services programs....

Using a "fuzzy" regression discontinuity design, we examine the short-run impacts of a vocational training program on self-employment, new business plans, entry into entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial traits using data from the Nepal Employment Fund training program, which funds training...