This paper examines the labor market dynamics of six CEE countries over the last 10 years, paying special attention to the nature of labor market institutions these countries have adopted and their impact on labor market performance. This paper finds that, compared to EU countries, CEE countries...

For the past decade, South Asian governments have been investing heavily to achieve the education millennium development goals (MDGs). The region has also made great progress in enrolling girls in both primary and secondary school. The rapid gains in enrollment have not been accompanied by...

The authors evaluated how Mexico's Labor Retraining Program (PROBECAT) affected unemployment and displaced workers. As part of the World Bank supported Manpower Training project, PROBECAT has provided short-term vocational training to more than 250,000 unemployed people. Their evaluation was...

The restructuring of Mexico's economy has had surprisingly little effect on Mexican unemployment, which is low even in the worst years. The authors ask: Is the official definition of unemployment adequate? Is unemployment properly measured? And who bears its burden? Is the welfare cost of...

This article is about Kazakhstan’s path toward achieving high levels of human development and an institutional environment favorable to both productivity growth and protection for the most vulnerable. The growth of human capital is closely linked with economic growth. Human capital...

This report covers education from primary through upper secondary school. Given its importance for school readiness, this report also reviews early childhood development even though that is outside formal education systems in the region. This study is the first to comprehensively analyse the...

Using Spanish data, the authors estimate Gary Becker's model of int ergenerational transmission of endowments. Income elasticities are positive both in fertility and in quality regressions. Signs of coeff icients in fertility equations are as predicted by the model. A lower bound of 0.17 is...