Investors are being encouraged after the global crisis to reduce their dependence on the largest credit rating agencies for risk assessments of companies and securities. Comparing risk assessments from different sources rapidly becomes non-trivial when more than three credit rating agencies are...

Despite the growing influence of international surveys of student achievements such as PISA, TIMSS, and PIRLS on policy, there is currently no international baseline study of children’s development on starting school. As a result, nobody knows for sure the extent to which the differences in...