Highlights of some of our work released in 2014,which can offer valuable policy guidance for decision makers in the face of complexity.

Most of the developing countries are facing the problem of high population growth, which is causing numerous social and economic problems. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in most of developing countries stands higher than the developed countries (UNPD, 2000). The TFR in Pakistan was 7.0 in...

Data from the two leading college admissions tests—the SAT and the ACT—can provide a valuable measure of student achievement, but bias resulting from the nonrepresentativeness of test takers is an important concern. The authors take advantage of a policy reform in Illinois that...

After years of stagnation and political cataclysms, Georgia tried to recover by launching radical economic and political reforms starting in 2004. The results of the reforms appeared to be impressive. The country's GDP has more than doubled; the total volume of bank deposits is five times what it...

We discuss existing shortfalls and inequalities in the accumulation of human capital—knowledge, skills, and health. We analyze their immediate and systemic causes, and assess the scope for public intervention. The broad policy goals should be to improve: the quality, and not just the quantity,...

After years of stagnation and political cataclysms, Georgia tried to recover by launching radical economic and political reforms starting in 2004. The results of the reforms appeared to be impressive. The country’s GDP has more than doubled; the total volume of bank deposits is five times...

Heterogeneity in time and risk preferences has been proposed as one of the mechanisms involved in the educational gradient in smoking, but this mechanism has scarcely been explored empirically. Subjective scales were introduced in the 2008 French National Health, Health Care and Insurance Survey...