Deon Filmer works on issues of education, youth employment and skills, service delivery and the study of policies and programs to improve human development outcomes.  His research spans the areas of education, health, social protection, and poverty and inequality. Publications include articles on the impact of demand-side programs on schooling outcomes; the roles of poverty, gender, orphanhood, and disability in explaining education inequalities; the determinants of effective service delivery and the evaluation of interventions aimed at improving it; the determinants of fertility behavior; and on trends in adult mortality around the world. He is currently co-director of WDR 2018 on Education. He has recently co-authored books on Making Schools Work: New Evidence from Accountability Reforms and Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa, and was a core team member of the WDR in 1995 Workers in an Integrating World and 2004 Making Services Work for Poor People. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University.