Recent events have required labor economists to rethink their approach toward the markets and this book aims to bring this rethinking to the forefront. The global economic crisis of 2008-2009, a rapidly changing demographic division, increasing youth unemployment rates (fuelling movements in...

This volume presents a framework designed to help international development partners consider the relevance of political economy issues for their programmatic support to decentralization and local government reform. The intention is neither to advocate decentralization in general or in any...

This chapter introduces the main issues associated with population aging, many of which will be investigated in detail throughout the volume. The next section describes the demographic transformation that Brazil has been experiencing and highlights its specific features, including a very rapid...

This report aims to help Bhutan think through various technical and policy issues of introducing electric vehicles in its own context. It analyses a variety of factors that will impact adoption of electric vehicles from technical, market and financial feasibility to consumer awareness and...

Many Roma are among the poorest and most vulnerable Europeans, facing poverty, exclusion, and discrimination. In European Union member countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) with substantial Roma populations, inequalities between Roma and non-Roma start early and are striking. Some of...

Undertaken by the ASER Center of Pratham, this study explores a set of interrelated factors that influence how teachers teach. Designed as a series of data collection exercises that were conducted between July 2013 and December 2014, the study covered 400 schools and tracked more than 2,200...

The recent past has witnessed phenomenal growth in MFIs around the world. Today as many as 200 million people are beneficiaries of microfinance. Given its worldwide attention, microfinance has received serious criticism, including the argument that it is a fad with less-than-expected benefits...

By most accounts, rural Malawi has lacked dynamism in the past decade. Growth has been mostly volatile, in large part due to unstable macroeconomic fundamentals evidenced by high inflation, fiscal deficits, and interest rates. When rapid economic growth has materialized, the gains have not...