Gender-based wage discrimination is a highly researched area of labor economics. However, most studies on this topic have focused on schooling and paid limited attention to the mechanisms through which cognitive and noncognitive skills influence wages. This paper uses data from adults in seven...

Most research on the economic payoffs of skills has used individuals' level of schooling attained-typically years or level of education or training received-as a key proxy for skills. Such research has consistently found that individual returns to schooling are positive and that returns tend to...

The Employer Survey Snapshot features a descriptive analysis of the data collected during the first two waves of the Skills Towards Employment and Productivity (STEP) Employer Surveys. Key objectives of the Snapshot are (1) to explain the motivation and relevance behind the implementation of...

To stimulate economic advancement, low- and middle-income countries need well-educated and trained workforces to fill the types of skilled jobs that drive economic growth. Improving educational quality and attainment and providing better training are all rightly put forth as policy...

This work explores the findings of the STEP (Skills toward Employment and Productivity) Skills Measurement Program that suggests that many workers are overqualified for their current jobs (based on the education those jobs require). The study also explores additional factors such as gender,...

The World Bank in collaboration with the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) conducted an assessment on the constraints and opportunities faced by non-farm household enterprise owners when starting and growing a business. The report highlights the findings from two applied methodologies namely a...

In Kenya, skills constraints are reported to have a detrimental impact on job creation and labor market outcomes. Employers have reported concerns with the level and relevance of a broad set of socio-emotional skills and cognitive skills amongst job applicants and recently hired workers. These...

Governments around the world assign top priority to job creation and productivity growth. Developing the right skills among potential and actual workers not only makes capital and labor more productive, it also makes the adoption and invention of new technologies possible. Recent research also...