This paper reviews the progress economists have made towards achieving an evidence-based educational policy, and highlights challenges that remain. The five main findings are: (1) over the past two decades, much effort has gone into identifying the causal effects of school inputs; this work has...

"America's educational system excels in at least one area: university-based research. Why? Miguel Urquiola, an economist of education, argues that the key is that the United States takes a free market approach to education. Urquiola begins by showing how dominant American universities are in...

The paper describes the privatization process in Bolivia, placing emphasis on the particularities of the capitalization mechanism that was used for this purpose, and the regulatory framework introduced as its essential complement. With this background, the paper then details the changes in the...

The wave of privatizations Latin America experienced during the 1990s was integral to stabilization programs and a general reordering of states’ roles in the regional economy. Over the past few years, however, these privatizations have come under increasing fire. Their purported adverse...

This paper analyses the privatization of utilities in Bolivia, detailing the particularities of the capitalization mechanism which was used for this purpose. The analysis suggests that capitalization and regulation, and the liberalization of the utilities sector more generally, succeeded in...

This paper reviews the progress economists have made towards achieving an evidence-based educational policy, and highlights challenges that remain. The five main findings are: (1) over the past two decades, much effort has gone into identifying the causal effects of school inputs; this work has...