What Keeps the Poor from “Smoothing” Financial Risk?
From mutual aid cooperatives to burial societies, numerous informal and semiformal institutions exist to help households deal with financial risk.
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development
Measuring Skills—Do Our Methods Hold Up in Developing Countries?
Research has shown that cognitive and noncognitive skills play an essential role in success in life, and large investments are
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How Do Health Shocks Impact Labor Supply? Gender Matters
In the developing world missing work due to illness often means poor families struggle. Since few jobs offer paid sick
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Better Educator Incentives Can Improve Primary School Completion
Primary school completion rates remain low, and educator accountability remains weak in many low-income countries. The accountability pressures that do
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Public Works Programs in India—A Path to Stability or a Low-Wage Track?
Public works programs have become a popular tool for poverty reduction in low-income countries. There are approximately 90 public works
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Partial Schooling Subsidy Puts Kids into the Classroom—And to Work
Evidence suggests that government subsidies typically increase school attendance and at the same time decrease paid work by children. The
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Having More Siblings Reduces Education Attainment, but Not by Much
Two trends are often observed as a country develops: a decline in family size and a rise in education attainment.
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Preschool and Parents’ Reactions in a Developing Country: Evidence from a School Construction Experiment in Cambodia
Studies from low-, middle-, and high-income countries show that children brought up in a more favorable early environment benefit in
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You Can’t Teach What You Don’t Know: Teachers’ Lack of Knowledge Hampers Student Learning in Sub-Saharan Africa
Most children in Sub-Saharan Africa are enrolled in school these days, but for reasons not well understood, they learn very
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Children’s Self-Portraits Show that Child Sponsorship Increases Hope
The role of psychological attributes such as hope and self-efficacy in escaping poverty has attracted increasing attention among economists, policy-makers,
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