There is little knowledge about the shape, prominence and drivers of work-to-work transitions in low- and middle-income countries. This paper examines these elements in the context of South Africa and Indonesia - two middle-income countries with similar development levels yet different labour...

Teacher education and development in the Philippines face serious challenges, including underperforming teacher education institutions (TEIs), inadequate and often misguided professional development systems, and an unclear career progression track. A particular concern grows with the...

We provide causal evidence from a developing country context that children exposed to lead at a young age exhibit worse cognitive outcomes. We exploit variation in exposure to leadcontaminated toxic sites in Indonesia and estimate a two-way fixed effects model using variation in age at first...

Many studies have documented that a phonics approach is an essential component in the teaching of reading for beginning readers, especially for students at risk of reading disabilities. We study whether phonics approaches, as indicated by the choice of basal readers (materials for the initial...

Sudden and unforeseen events, notably the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored and exacerbated pre-existing urban inequalities. These disruptions have disproportionately affected the most vulnerable sectors of society, thereby further aggravating existing inequalities. Addressing these inequality...

We study the long-term effects of a randomized intervention targeting children's socio-emotional skills. The classroom-based intervention for primary school children has positive impacts that persist for over a decade. Treated children become more likely to complete academic high school and...

Children tend to choose the same occupations as their parents. We examine the implications of this tendency for talent allocation and intergenerational mobility. Using Swedish data on skills and personality traits, we estimate a general equilibrium Roy model with unequal occupational access...

This paper examines the impact of automation investments on employment dynamics and workforce composition using administrative data from Portugal. I exploit the lumpiness of automation imports in a difference-in-differences event study design. My results show that automation creates jobs in...

Higher-income countries are aging at unprecedented rates, creating skills shortages in critical sectors ranging from healthcare to construction to information technology. At the same time, many lower-income countries are experiencing booming youth populations, but many lack the skills needed to...

The World Bank has been working closely with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to develop a system-level skills strategy. The MHRSD first started by establishing a Skills and Training Deputyship andallocated resources to start...

South Africa's green transition will have major implications for its workforce. This note presents five strategies to prepare the workforce for the green transition. The note explores the implications of the green transition on labor and skills needs in South Africa, and assesses the readiness...

We evaluate the influence on the skill premium of the task content of jobs by exploiting the text data from online job ads covering 2009-2018 (over 189,000 ads) published by one of the leading Chilean online job portals (www.trabajando.com). Our analysis tests the expected complementarity...

Personality traits, preferences, and attitudes significantly influence labor market outcomes, and these non-cognitive skills are shaped by the social environment. While curriculum interventions can impact these skills, the effect of compulsory education on non-cognitive skills is less well...

This policy brief draws on the findings of Tverdostup et al. (2025) to examine Austrian firms' responses to labour shortages through automation and migration. Like many European nations, Austria has been grappling with labour shortages over the past decade. These shortages have been influenced...

Skills development through quality apprenticeships can help young people make a successful transition from school to adulthood with sustainable, satisfying and rewarding employment. But even in Switzerland, which has a very strong standardized apprenticeship system with a good reputation, there...

This paper investigates the responses of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions in South-East Asia to the demands of industry's digital transformation in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0). TVET institutions play a crucial role in bridging the...

We derive wage equations with individual specific coefficients from a structural model of human capital investment over the life cycle. This model allows for interruptions in labour market participation and deals with missing data and attrition problems. We propose a new framework that deals...

How does manager quality affect subordinates' career progression? We examine the causal effect of manager quality on workers' career outcomes in the context of managerial teams at a large construction firm. We exploit quasi-random variation in worker-manager matching through frequent project...

Industrial policies are widespread, but evidence on their workforce effects remains limited. We present novel evidence on the impact of EU technology subsidies on employment and skill demand in Finnish SMEs, 1994-2018. The subsidies fund new machinery, including robots and CNC machines....

Many factors are behind the persistent gender wage gap in a developing economy, such as occupational segregation, social norms, and gender attitudes. To narrow the gender wage gap, it is mandatory to create gender-inclusive work environments, increase minimum wages and implement labour market...

Identifying sensitive periods in which the returns to investments into skills are especially high is challenging, but crucial for an effective and efficient timing of parental or public investments aimed at fostering children’s skills. We can detect sensitive periods with a novel design by...

It is well established that job displacement leads to large and persistent earnings losses, but the reasons for these long-term losses remain unclear. A leading theory ties earnings losses to the demand laid-off workers face for their industry-specific human capital, yet evidence in support of...

The green transition represents one of the most significant transformational forces in the labor market in the coming years. This paper analyzes the incidence of green jobs in four Latin American countries using information from job vacancy data. The results reveal a low incidence of demand for...

Angesichts der weitreichenden Auswirkungen des demografischen Wandels auf den Arbeitsmarkt steht die Politik inzwischen vor der grundlegenden Herausforderung, ihre unterschiedlichen Ziele und Maßnahmen stets auch unter dem Gesichtspunkt der allgemeinen Arbeitskräfteverknappung zu betrachten....

The development of English-language skills, a near necessity in today’s global economy, is heavily influenced by historical national decisions about whether to subtitle or dub TV content. While prior studies of language acquisition have focused on schools, we show the overwhelming influence of...

In this paper, we examine the incidence of skill gaps among European employees. We identify the worker and firm level characteristics most commonly associated with skill gaps and investigate the extent to which this particular form of skill mismatch is associated with wage penalties. In 2021, we...