While decentralization of schooling in Asian developing countries has largely been driven by fiscal constraints, it has also been motivated by concerns about the effectiveness of a centralized system in delivering schooling services. The statistics are revealing about some of these concerns:...

This study estimates the associations between household income and children's school success in Vietnam. The estimates indicate that these associations are considerable. For example, the income elasticity of completed grades is five times the median estimate of earlier studies. Moreover, this...

Social connections are fundamental to human wellbeing. This paper examines the social networks of young married women in rural Odisha, India. This is a group for whom highly-gendered norms around marriage, mobility and work are likely to shape opportunities to form and maintain meaningful ties...

Gender gaps in skills exist around the world but differ remarkably among the high and low-and-middle income countries. This paper uses a unique data set with more than 20,000 adolescents in rural India to examine whether socioeconomic status and gender attitudes predict gender gaps in cognitive...