The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a monumental blow to the education of English school children. Over the past 18 months, English school pupils experienced two long periods of nationwide school closures. The first round of universal school closures lasted 10 weeks (from 23 March to 1 June 2020);...

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of children's lives, with impacts on their social and emotional development as well as their educational attainment. School closures increased social and emotional difficulties (Blanden et al., 2021); lack of contact with friends and extended family...

Global access to preschool has increased dramatically yet preschool quality is often poor. We use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate two approaches to improving the quality of Colombian preschools. We find that the first, which was rolled out nationwide and provides additional resources...

Global access to preschool has increased dramatically, yet preschool quality is often poor and evidence on how to improve it is scarce. We worked with the government of Colombia to implement a largescale randomized controlled trial evaluating two interventions targeting the quality of public...

This report brings together the findings of a comprehensive programme of work that IFS has led on the short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start on children's outcomes. At the time this research started, there was little evidence on whether Sure Start had benefited children, especially beyond...

This paper develops a new methodology to analyze how parents in Rajasthan, India make choices about their daughters’ schooling and marriage. We specify a dynamic discrete choice model in which parents face uncertainty about the quality of their daughter’s future marriage offers. Parents’...

This chapter examines gender inequality, focusing on two critical spheres in which gender inequality is generated: education and work. The objective is to provide a current snapshot of gender inequality across key indicators as well as a dynamic perspective that highlights successes and...