In many low-income countries, teachers do not master the subject they are teaching, and children learn little while attending school. Using unique data from nationally representative surveys of schools in seven Sub-Saharan African countries, this paper proposes a methodology to assess the effect...

In many low-income countries, teachers do not master the subject they are teaching, and children learn little while attending school. Using unique data from nationally representative surveys of schools in seven Sub-Saharan African countries, this paper proposes a methodology to assess the effect...

What goes on inside the classroom is central to student learning. Despite its importance, low- and middle-income countries rarely measure teaching practices, in part due to a lack of access to adequate classroom observation tools and the high transaction costs associated with administering them....

After spending five to six years sitting in a classroom almost every day for anywhere between 4 to 7 hours a significant share of students in low and middle-income countries are not able to read, write or do basic arithmetic. What is going on inside these classrooms? A growing body of evidence...

A large empirical literature has shown that user fees significantly deter public service utilization in developing countries. While most of these results reflect partial equilibrium analysis, we find that the nationwide abolition of public school fees in Kenya in 2003 led to no increase in net...