Collapse and Recovery : How the COVID-19 Pandemic Eroded Human Capital and What to Do about It

Front Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- About the Authors -- Main Messages -- Abbreviations -- Executive Summary -- The pandemic destroyed human capital at critical moments in the life cycle -- Policies to reverse human capital losses -- Building agile, resilient, and adaptive human development systems for future shocks -- A human capital recovery: What will it take? -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 1 A Human Capital Collapse: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Early Childhood, School-Age Children, and Young Adults -- A pending crisis in productivity could last for multiple generations -- Building human capital requires sustained investments along many dimensions from many sources -- Human capital trajectories are set during childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood -- Shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic decrease both levels of human capital and subsequent rates of accumulation -- Countries have three potential paths following the pandemic: A permanently lower trajectory, partial recovery, or complete recovery -- Choices today matter: Governments can change their recovery paths -- The time window for addressing setbacks in human capital accumulation is short -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 2 Poor Start: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Early Childhood Development and Subsequent Human Capital Accumulation -- Shocks occurring during early childhood can persist for decades-and even across generations -- The pandemic reduced critical investments in young children -- Children's development slowed during lockdowns -- These early setbacks will have long-lasting ramifications for human capital accumulation, earnings, and economic growth -- How can policy get young children back on track? -- Using the pandemic to prioritize investments in children -- Notes -- References.