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School Meals Are Evolving: Has the Evidence Kept Up? World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Harold Alderman, Donald Bundy, Aulo Gelli
School meal programs are popular social programs. They are provided to 61 percent of primary students in high-income countries but to a smaller share of students in less wealthy countries. There is a body of evidence documenting their contribution to education, health and nutrition, and social protection. But in each domain, program objectives have evolved: schooling is recognized to be more about
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Social Norms and Gender Disparities with a Focus on Female Labor Force Participation in South Asia World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2023-09-23 Maurizio Bussolo, Jessy Amarachi Ezebuihe, Ana Maria Muñoz Boudet, Stavros Poupakis, Tasmia Rahman, Nayantara Sarma
Despite decades of economic growth, gender disparities in South Asia remain remarkably high. Although not the only one, social norms are a crucial driver of various gender outcomes, including differential economic participation. Using repeated cross-sectional data from nationally representative surveys, this study explores long-term trends across gender outcomes and social norms (contrasting attitudes
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Impacts of Temporary Migration on Development in Origin Countries World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2023-04-17 Laurent Bossavie, Çağlar Özden
Temporary migration is widespread globally. While the literature has traditionally focused on the impacts of permanent migration on destination countries, evidence on the effects of temporary migration on origin countries has grown over the past decade. This paper highlights that the economic development impacts, especially on low- and middle-income origin countries, are complex, dynamic, context-specific
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Girls’ Education at Scale World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2023-04-14 David K Evans, Amina Mendez Acosta, Fei Yuan
Many educational interventions boost outcomes for girls in settings where girls face educational advantages, but which of those interventions are proven to function effectively at large scale? In contrast to earlier reviews, this review focuses on large-scale programs and policies—those that reach at least 10,000 students—and on final school outcomes such as completion and student learning rather than
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What Makes Public Sector Data Valuable for Development? World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2023-04-14 Dean Jolliffe, Daniel Gerszon Mahler, Malarvizhi Veerappan, Talip Kilic, Philip Wollburg
Data produced by the public sector can have transformational impacts on development outcomes through better targeting of resources, improved service delivery, cost savings, increased accountability, and more. Around the world, the amount of data produced by the public sector is increasing rapidly, but we argue the full potential of data to improve development outcomes has not been realized yet. We
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Quasi-Experimental Evidence on Carbon Pricing World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2023-03-30 Kasper Vrolijk, Misato Sato
A growing literature suggests that carbon emissions are most efficiently reduced by carbon pricing. The evidence base on the effectiveness of market-based mechanisms, however, faces three key limitations: studies often (a) predict, rather than evaluate effects, (b) show large difference in findings, and (c) cannot always infer causal relations. Quasi-experimental studies can address these challenges
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The Promise and Limitations of Information Technology for Tax Mobilization World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2022-10-20 Oyebola Okunogbe, Fabrizio Santoro
Tax revenue in many low- and middle-income countries is inadequate for funding investments in public goods and human capital. With high levels of informality and limited state capacity, many tax authorities have difficulty determining the true tax base and collecting taxes efficiently and equitably. Tax authorities are increasingly adopting new technologies to improve administrative processes, reduce
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Services, Jobs, and Economic Development in Africa World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2022-08-10 Leonardo Baccini, Matteo Fiorini, Bernard Hoekman, Marco Sanfilippo
This article presents data and analyzes the structure of employment in 13 African economies at the administrative unit level, with a focus on the role of services. We provide two novel pieces of evidence. First, we present a descriptive snapshot of changes in the composition of employment over time and across geographies. This reveals evidence of structural transformation toward services and service-related
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Childcare and Mothers’ Labor Market Outcomes in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2022-07-13 Daniel Halim, Elizaveta Perova, Sarah Reynolds
Improving women's labor force participation and the quality of their employment can boost economic growth and support poverty and inequality reduction; thus, it is highly pertinent for the development agenda. However, existing systematic reviews on female labor market outcomes and childcare, which can arguably improve these outcomes, are focused on developed countries. We review 22 studies which plausibly
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A Puzzle with Missing Pieces: Explaining the Effectiveness of World Bank Development Projects World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2022-07-13 Louise Ashton, Jed Friedman, Diana Goldemberg, Mustafa Zakir Hussain, Thomas Kenyon, Akib Khan, Mo Zhou
The identification of key determinants of aid effectiveness is a long-standing question in the development community. This paper reviews the literature on aid effectiveness at the project level and then extends the inquiry in a variety of dimensions with new data on World Bank investment project financing. It confirms that the country institutional setting and quality of project supervision are associated
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The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women-Led Businesses World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2022-03-29 Jesica Torres,Franklin Maduko,Isis Gaddis,Leonardo Iacovone,Kathleen Beegle
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has struck businesses across the globe with unprecedented impacts. The world economy has been hit hard and firms have experienced a myriad of challenges, but these challenges have been heterogeneous across firms. This paper examines one important dimension of this heterogeneity: the differential effect of the pandemic on women-led and men-led businesses. The paper exploits
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Greater than the Sum of the Parts? Evidence on Mechanisms Operating in Women's Groups World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2022-03-25 Lucía Díaz-Martin,Akshara Gopalan,Eleonora Guarnieri,Seema Jayachandran
Abstract Women's groups are a popular approach to promoting women's and girls’ empowerment. Yet, whether and how creating and supporting women's groups and delivering interventions through them offers unique benefits compared to individual-based interventions remains an open question. We review the experimental and quasi-experimental literature on women's livelihoods and financial groups, health groups
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Factors Affecting Technological Diffusion Through Social Networks: A Review of the Empirical Evidence World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2021-06-26 Hoi Wai Jackie Cheng
Network theory-based interventions could be particularly effective for promoting technology adoption when information friction serves as the major obstacle to technology diffusion. To inform policy makers interested in such interventions, this paper systematically reviews empirical evidence on determinants of how social networks shape technology diffusion. It identifies three sets of factors that individually
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Social Protection for Child Development in Crisis: A Review of Evidence and Knowledge Gaps World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2021-05-12 Elisabetta Aurino, Sara Giunti
Globally, humanitarian needs have reached an historically unprecedented scale, undermining the ability of affected children to survive, grow, and thrive. Social protection holds the promise of addressing acute needs and risks faced by children in crisis contexts, while allowing for human capital investments. We review evidence of the impact of emergency cash, food, and other in-kind transfers implemented
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Teacher Professional Development around the World: The Gap between Evidence and Practice World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2021-04-17 Anna Popova, David K Evans, Mary E Breeding, Violeta Arancibia
Many teachers in low- and middle-income countries lack the skills to teach effectively, and professional development (PD) programs are the principal tool that governments use to upgrade those skills. At the same time, few PD programs are evaluated, and those that are evaluated show highly varying results. This paper proposes a set of indicators—the In-Service Teacher Training Survey Instrument—to standardize
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Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes: A Set of Global Estimates World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2021-03-17 João Pedro Azevedo, Amer Hasan, Diana Goldemberg, Koen Geven, Syedah Aroob Iqbal
This paper presents simulations of the potential effect of COVID-19-related school closures on schooling and learning outcomes. It considers four scenarios—varying in both the duration of school closures and the effectiveness of any mitigation strategies being deployed by governments. Using data on 174 countries, the analysis finds that the global level of schooling and learning will fall substantially
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Policies to Support Businesses through the COVID-19 Shock: A Firm Level Perspective World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2021-01-08 Xavier Cirera, Marcio Cruz, Elwyn Davies, Arti Grover, Leonardo Iacovone, Jose Ernesto Lopez Cordova, Denis Medvedev, Franklin Okechukwu Maduko, Gaurav Nayyar, Santiago Reyes Ortega, Jesica Torres
Relying on a novel dataset covering more than 120,000 firms in 60 countries, this paper contributes to the debate about policies to support businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. While governments around the world have implemented a wide range of policy support measures, evidence on the reach of these policies, the alignment of measures with firm needs, and their targeting and effectiveness remains
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Who on Earth Can Work from Home? World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2021-01-07 Daniel Garrote Sanchez, Nicolas Gomez Parra, Caglar Ozden, Bob Rijkers, Mariana Viollaz, Hernan Winkler
This paper reviews the emerging literature on which jobs can be performed from home and presents new estimates of the prevalence of such jobs based on the task content of occupations, their technology requirements and the availability of internet access by country and income groupings. Globally, one of every five jobs can be performed from home. In low-income countries, this ratio drops to one of every
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Public Service Reform in Post-Conflict Societies World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2020-12-24 Blum J, Rogger D.
AbstractBuilding a capable public service is a key component of post-conflict state building. An effective public service is fundamental to the regulation of society, to managing public funds, and to service delivery. Yet in post-conflict environments, there is typically a tradeoff between the long-term objective of state building and securing the peace in the short term. To buy peace, political elites
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Financial Inclusion and Stability: Review of Theoretical and Empirical Links World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2020-12-02 Martin Čihák, Davide Salvatore Mare, Martin Melecky
This paper reviews the literature on financial stability and financial inclusion—two broad objectives of financial policy that may be mutually dependent. The review suggests the possible co-dependence of stability and inclusion. We build on this theoretical motivation by exploring stylized facts (correlations) obtained from data sets that have been widely used in the literature on financial inclusion
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Can Jobs Programs Build Peace? World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2020-09-30 Tilman Brück, Neil T N Ferguson, Valeria Izzi, Wolfgang Stojetz
In the last decade, well over $10 billion has been spent on employment programs designed to contribute to peace and stability. Despite the outlay, whether these programs perform, and how they do so, remain open questions. This study conducts three reviews to derive the status quo of knowledge. First, it draws on academic literature on the microfoundations of instability to distill testable theories
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Corruption as a Self-Reinforcing Trap: Implications for Reform Strategy World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2020-06-13 Stephenson M.
AbstractCorruption is widely believed to be a self-reinforcing phenomenon, in the sense that the incentive to engage in corrupt acts increases as corruption becomes more widespread. Some argue that corruption's self-reinforcing property necessarily implies that incremental anticorruption reforms cannot be effective, and that the only way to escape a high-corruption equilibrium “trap” is through a so-called
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Human Capital and Macroeconomic Development: A Review of the Evidence World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2020-04-16 Rossi F.
AbstractThe role of human capital in facilitating macroeconomic development is at the center of both academic and policy debates. Through the lens of a simple aggregate production function, human capital might increase output per capita by directly entering in the production process, incentivizing the accumulation of complementary inputs, and facilitating the adoption of new technologies. This paper
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What Drives Successful Economic Diversification in Resource-Rich Countries? World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2020-03-29 Addisu A Lashitew, Michael L Ross, Eric Werker
The “resource curse” is often understood to imply poor growth in the non-resource sectors of the economy, but research into the diversification performance of resource-rich countries is limited. This paper surveys recent evidence and identifies empirical patterns in the economic diversification of resource-rich countries. Diversification is measured using the growth of per capita non-resource (manufacturing
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Out-of-Pocket Expenditures on Health: A Global Stocktake World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2020-02-12 Wagstaff A, Eozenou P, Smitz M.
AbstractThis paper provides an overview of research on out-of-pocket health expenditures by reviewing the various summary measures and the results of multi-country studies using these measures. The paper presents estimates for 146 countries from all World Bank income groups for all summary measures, along with correlations between the summary measures and macroeconomic and health system indicators
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Putting Global Governance in Its Place World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2020-01-15 Dani Rodrik
Abstract Greater interdependence is often taken to require more global governance, but the logic requires scrutiny. Cross-border spillovers do not always call for international rules. The canonical cases for global governance are based on two sets of circumstances: global commons and “beggar-thy-neighbor” (BTN) policies. The world economy is not a global commons (outside of climate change), and much
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Illicit Financial Flows: Concepts, Measurement, and Evidence World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2019-12-23 Matthew Collin
There is a growing consensus that the presence of illegal and harmful cross-border financial flows is one of the factors impeding economic and human development. In recent years, a new conceptual f...
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Supporting Policy Reform from the Outside World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2019-10-16 Lodewijk Smets
Sound economic and social policies are important if countries wish to prosper and achieve sustainable development. It is far from guaranteed, however, that policymakers select and implement good po...
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External Validity and Policy Adaptation: From Impact Evaluation to Policy Design World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2019-08-01 Williams M.
AbstractWith the growing number of impact evaluations worldwide, the question of how to apply this evidence in policy making processes has arguably become the main challenge for evidence-based policy making. How can policy makers predict whether a policy will have the same impact in their context as it did elsewhere, and how should this influence the policy’s design and implementation? This paper suggests
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Jobs and Land Use within Cities: A Survey of Theory, Evidence, and Policy World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2019-08-01 Arti Grover Goswami, Somik V Lall
Over the last century, the urban spatial structure of cities has transformed dramatically from the traditional monocentric configuration to varying forms of decentralized organization. This paper reviews the theory and empirical evidence to understand the urban morphology of jobs and land use within a city. This survey highlights four broad insights: (i) The evolution of monocentric to polycentric
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Preventing More “Missing Girls”: A Review of Policies to Tackle Son Preference World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2019-07-29 Sneha Kumar, Nistha Sinha
In parts of Asia, the South Caucasus, and the Balkans, son preference is strong enough to trigger significant levels of sex selection, resulting in the excess mortality of girls and skewing child s...
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Gender Matters in Economic Empowerment Interventions: A Research Review World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2019-07-19 Mayra Buvinić,Megan O'Donnell
Abstract Evidence shows that women face additional constraints because of their gender that affect their economic performance. A review of recent evaluation research demonstrates the types of gender-related constraints women face and the role that economic empowerment interventions can play in overcoming them, especially if they incorporate aspects of smart design, increasing their development impact
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Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation: Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2019-02-01 Annamaria Milazzo, Markus Goldstein
What role do institutional constraints and social norms play in determining persistent gender gapsin economic and political participation and have institutional reforms been successful in reducing these gaps? This paper argues that, at the roots of current gender inequalities, there are traditional patriarchal social structures in which power is unequally distributed, with men traditionally holding
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The World Bank Human Capital Index: A Guide World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2019-02-01 Aart Kraay
This paper provides a guide to the new World Bank Human Capital Index (HCI), situating its methodology in the context of the development accounting literature. The HCI combines indicators of health and education into a measure of the human capital that a child born today can expect to achieve by her 18th birthday, given the risks of poor education and health that prevail in the country where she lives
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Changing Behavioral Patterns Related to Maternity and Childbirth in Rural and Poor Populations: A Critical Review World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2019-02-01 Ariadna Garcia-Prado
While life expectancy has increased worldwide in recent decades, dramatic health inequalities persist across and within countries and between different population groups. Maternal mortality in low-...
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A Mixed-Method Review of Cash Transfers and Intimate Partner Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2018-08-01 Ana Maria Buller, Amber Peterman, Meghna Ranganathan, Alexandra Bleile, Melissa Hidrobo, Lori Heise
There is increasing evidence that cash transfer (CT) programs decrease intimate partner violence (IPV); however, little is known about how CTs achieve this impact. We conducted a mixed method review of studies in low- and middle-income countries. Fourteen quantitative and nine qualitative studies met our inclusion criteria, of which eleven and six respectively demonstrated evidence that CTs decrease
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Myth-Busting? Confronting Six Common Perceptions about Unconditional Cash Transfers as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in Africa. World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2018-08-01 Sudhanshu Handa,Silvio Daidone,Amber Peterman,Benjamin Davis,Audrey Pereira,Tia Palermo,Jennifer Yablonski
This paper summarizes evidence on six perceptions associated with cash transfer programming, using eight rigorous evaluations conducted on large-scale government unconditional cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa under the Transfer Project. Specifically, it investigates if transfers: 1) induce higher spending on alcohol or tobacco; 2) are fully consumed (rather than invested); 3) create dependency
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Industrial Policy, Information, and Government Capacity World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2018-03-14 William F Maloney,Gaurav Nayyar
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The Whys of Social Exclusion: Insights from Behavioral Economics World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2018-02-01 Karla Hoff, James Walsh
All over the world, people are prevented from participating fully in society through mechanisms that go beyond the structural and institutional barriers that rational choice theory identifies (—poverty, exclusion by law or force, taste-based or statistical discrimination, and externalities from social networks differentiated by socioeconomic status). This paper discusses four additional mechanisms
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The Impacts of Fiscal Openness World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2017-08-01 Paolo de Renzio, Joachim Wehner
Fiscal transparency and participation in government budgeting are widely promoted, yet claims about their benefits are rarely based on convincing evidence. We provide the first systematic review covering 38 empirical studies published between 1991 and early 2015. Increased budgetary disclosure and participation – which we call “fiscal openness” – are consistently associated with improvements in the
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The Opportunities and Challenges of Digitizing Government-to-Person Payments World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2017-08-01 Leora Klapper, Dorothe Singer
This paper reviews evidence on the benefits and challenges faced by governments migrating from cash to digital (electronic) government-to-person (G2P) payments. When supported by an appropriate consumer financial protection framework, digital payments enable confidential and convenient financial services, which can be especially important for women. By shifting government wages and social transfers
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“Well-fare” Economics of Groundwater in South Asia World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2017-01-24 Hanan G. Jacoby
Groundwater exploitation has been instrumental in raising agricultural productivity andreducing rural poverty in South Asia, a region that accounts for nearly half of the globalgroundwater used for irrigation. Over the past three decades there has been an explosion ofprivate investment in borewells and mechanized pumps, which has allowed access togroundwater to be widely shared. But this profusion
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Minimum Wages in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Primer World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2017-01-03 Haroon Bhorat, Ravi Kanbur, Benjamin Stanwix
Although the sectors and fraction of workers covered are small given the low rates of formality and urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), as the number of covered workers grows wage regulation will become increasingly significant. We find that higher minimum wage values are associated with higher GDP per capita. Importantly, however, we find that the minimum wage relative to the mean wage is higher
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Improving Learning Outcomes in South Asia: Findings from a Decade of Impact Evaluations World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2016-10-23 Salman Asim, Robert S. Chase, Amit Dar, Achim Schmillen
There have been many initiatives to improve education outcomes in South Asia. Still, outcomes remain stubbornly resistant to improvements, at least when considered across the region. To collect and synthesize the insights about what actually works to improve learning and other education outcomes, this paper conducts a systematic review and meta-analysis of 29 education-focused impact evaluations from
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Big Numbers about Small Children: Estimating the Economic Benefits of Addressing Undernutrition. World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2016-10-03 Harold Alderman,Jere R Behrman,Chloe Puett
Different approaches have been used to estimate the economic benefits of reducing undernutrition and to estimate the costs of investing in such programs on a global scale. While many of these studies are ultimately based on evidence from well-designed efficacy trials, all require a number of assumptions to project the impact of such trials to larger populations and to translate the value of the expected
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Payment by Results in Development Aid: All That Glitters Is Not Gold World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2016-08-01 Paul Clist
Payment by Results (PbR), where aid is disbursed conditional upon progress against a pre-agreed measure, is becoming increasingly important for various donors. There are great hopes that this innovative instrument will focus attention on ultimate outcomes and lead to greater aid effectiveness by passing the delivery risk on to recipients. However, there is very little related empirical evidence, and
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Producer Insurance and Risk Management Options for Smallholder Farmers: Table 1. World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2016-03-29 Vincent H. Smith
Many smallholder families are exceptionally prone to potentially catastrophic decreases in their incomes and access to food. Over the past decade, therefore, policy makers and economists have increasingly focused on potential mechanisms for expanding risk management strategies available to those families. Commercially provided weather-based index insurance products, perhaps partially funded by subsidies
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Employer Voices, Employer Demands, and Implications for Public Skills Development Policy Connecting the Labor and Education Sectors World Bank Res. Obs. (IF 3.778) Pub Date : 2016-02-01 Wendy V. Cunningham, Paula Villaseñor
Educators believe that they are adequately preparing youth for the labor market while at the same time employers lament the students' lack of skills. A possible source of the mismatch in perceptions is that employers and educators have different understandings of the types of skills valued in the labor market. Using economics and psychology literature to define four skills sets --socio-emotional, higher-order