Aspirations have become a common theme in empirical economics studies, but there is no unified understanding of the range of outcomes they influence, the factors that shape them, and how to measure them. This paper surveys this growing literature. The paper argues that there is compelling...

While the size of Colombia’s middle class have soared in the past decade (2002-12), most of the population remains poor or vulnerable, that is out of poverty but with high odds of falling back. Poor and vulnerable people typically face high precariousness in the labor market but little is...

Ukraine's economic progress since its independence in the early 1990s has been uneven, in part due to the slow pace of reforms, unfavorable demographic factors, and low productivity. One of the key factors limiting success is the inadequacy of the skills of Ukraine's workforce with the needs of...

This paper examines the relationship between individuals' skills and labor market outcomes for the working-age population of Colombia's urban areas. Using a 2012 unique household survey, the paper finds that cognitive skills (aptitudes to perform mental tasks such as comprehension or reasoning)...

Common proxies, such as years of education, have been shown to be ineffective at capturing cross-country differences in skills acquisition, as well as the role they play in the labor market. A large body of research shows that direct measures of skills, in particular cognitive and...

"Skills for a Modern Ukraine provides new evidence on the nature of skills that are valued in the labor market and proposes a set of policy options to improve the formatio and use of skills. Household and firm surveys and a data set of online job vacancies show that workers need a mix of...

High aspirations for their future motivate youth to strive toward them and achieve better outcomes. However, the influence of perceived constraints on the motivational power of is unclear: do high aspirations motivate independently of constraints or only when expected constraints seem workable...

As the economies of Southeast Asia continue adopting digital technologies, policy makers increasingly ask how to prepare the workforce for emerging labor demands. However, little is known about the skills that workers need to adapt to these changes. Skills profiles in low- and middle-income...

Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. While the impacts of climate change on people's well-being can hardly be denied, it may not be as obvious that the impacts could differ by gender. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, a shock can impact men and women...