C. Journal articles published externally

2,064 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4401

These are journal articles by World Bank authors published externally.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 13

Measuring Human Capital in Middle Income Countries

(Elsevier, 2022-12) Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli ; Torre, Iván

This paper develops an indicator that measures the level of human capital to address the specific education and health challenges faced by middle income countries. We apply this indicator to countries in Europe and Central Asia, where productive employment requires skills that are more prevalent among higher education graduates, and where good health is associated to low levels of adult health risk factors. The Europe and Central Asia Human Capital Index (ECA-HCI) extends the World Bank's Human Capital Index by adding a measure of quality-adjusted years of higher education to the original education component, and it includes the prevalence of three adult health risk factors—obesity, smoking, and heavy drinking—as an additional proxy for latent health status. The results show that children born today in the average country in Europe and Central Asia will be almost half as productive as they would have had they reached the benchmark of complete education and full health. Countries with good basic education outcomes do not necessarily have good higher education outcomes, and high prevalence of adult health risk factors can offset good education indicators. This extension of the Human Capital Index could also be useful for assessing the state of human capital in middle-income countries in general.
Spillover Effects of Tobacco Farms on the Labor Supply, Education, and Health of Children: Evidence from Malawi

(Oxford University Press, 2019-04-24) Xia, Fang ; Deininger, Klaus

Using data from the Living Standards Measurement Study in Malawi, we examine the spillover effects of tobacco farms on children’s labor supply, education, and health. To address potential endogeneity, the share of tobacco farms in a community is instrumented by the change in tobacco buyers following termination of the intermediate buyer system. We find that, as tobacco cultivation is labor-intensive, children in communities with more tobacco growers spend more time as casual laborers and are less likely to advance to the next grade. Adverse health effects, measured by the likelihood of suffering from illnesses related to green tobacco sickness, are estimated to be larger than previously documented. This affects not only “working-age” children but also children too young to work on tobacco farms. Moreover, exposure to large-scale tobacco cultivation is estimated to reduce the height-for-age z-score of children aged 6–60 months. These findings highlight the importance of raising awareness and taking measures to protect children against green tobacco.
Can Regulations Make It More Difficult to Serve the Poor?: The Case of Childcare Services in istanbul, Turkey

(Taylor and Francis, 2016-11-03) Aran, Meltem A. ; Aktakke, Nazli ; Munoz Boudet, Ana Maria

Private and community-driven efforts can be an important resource to expand early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to poor children, under the right conditions and design. The regulations imposed on private ECEC provision, while having an impact on quality, may increase costs of provision and in return prices of services, reducing accessibility and affordability for poor households. This paper considers the impact of regulations on private ECEC in a highly regulated childcare market in a developing country. Using data from a recently fielded survey that sampled 141 private ECEC facilities in Istanbul, Turkey, the paper looks at the impact of fixed regulations on prices and poor children’s access to services, in particular the outdoor space requirement that was originally imposed on private providers in the 1960s and has over time become more difficult to fulfill in densely populated districts of the city. The paper estimates that controlling for other provider characteristics, in districts where such requirement is more binding, the price of childcare services increases by 376.2 TL per child per month and the percentage of children enrolled coming from poor backgrounds lowers by 15.1% points than in districts where such standard proves less challenging.
Maximizing Child Development: Three Principles for Policymakers

(Taylor and Francis, 2016-11-03) Caceres, Susan ; Tanner, Jeffrey ; Williams, Sian

This policy note advances three inter-related principles to guide policy-makers and agents in international development organizations to prioritize their actions. These principles are drawn from findings from two Early Childhood Development (ECD) reports recently completed by the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group—one on the World Bank support for ECD and the other a systematic review of the sustained effects of early childhood interventions. The principles are: Support the Early Development of Children, Starting from Birth; Support Parents Through Existing Services; Make Resources Available to Meet Needs of the Most Vulnerable. These principles imply a new emphasis on development beyond survival with effective, evidence-informed interventions. The policy implications also mean starting with what exists in services in health and protection for vulnerable families and augmenting these with parenting support and education components so that children’s risks are reduced and more poor children will be ready to enter primary school at the appropriate age and to persist through schooling and thrive in the labor market.
Exploring Women’s Agency and Empowerment in Developing Countries: Where Do We Stand?

(Taylor and Francis, 2015-10-27) Hanmer, Lucia ; Klugman, Jeni

While central notions around agency are well established in academic literature, progress on the empirical front has faced major challenges around developing tractable measures and data availability. This has limited our understanding about patterns of agency and empowerment of women across countries. Measuring key dimensions of women's agency and empowerment is complex, but feasible and important. This paper systematically explores what can be learned from Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for fifty-eight countries, representing almost 80 percent of the female population of developing countries. It is the first such empirical investigation. The findings quantify some important correlations. Completing secondary education and beyond has consistently large positive associations, underlining the importance of going beyond primary schooling. There appear to be positive links with poverty reduction and economic growth, but clearly this alone is not enough. Context specificity and multidimensionality mean that the interpretation of results is not always straightforward.
Should Aid Reward Performance? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia

(American Economic Association, 2014-10) Olken, Benjamin A. ; Onishi, Junko ; Wong, Susan

We report an experiment in 3,000 villages that tested whether incentives improve aid efficacy. Villages received block grants for maternal and child health and education that incorporated relative performance incentives. Subdistricts were randomized into incentives, an otherwise identical program without incentives, or control. Incentives initially improved preventative health indicators, particularly in underdeveloped areas, and spending efficiency increased. While school enrollments improved overall, incentives had no differential impact on education, and incentive health effects diminished over time. Reductions in neonatal mortality in non-incentivized areas did not persist with incentives. We find no systematic scoring manipulation nor funding reallocation toward richer areas.
Should Aid Reward Performance?: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia

(American Economic Association, 2014-10) Olken, Benjamin A. ; Onishi, Junko ; Wong, Susan

We report an experiment in 3,000 villages that tested whether incentives improve aid efficacy. Villages received block grants for maternal and child health and education that incorporated relative performance incentives. Subdistricts were randomized into incentives, an otherwise identical program without incentives, or control. Incentives initially improved preventative health indicators, particularly in underdeveloped areas, and spending efficiency increased. While school enrollments improved overall, incentives had no differential impact on education, and incentive health effects diminished over time. Reductions in neonatal mortality in nonincentivized areas did not persist with incentives. We find no systematic scoring manipulation nor funding reallocation toward richer areas.
The Heterogeneous Effects of HIV Testing

(Elsevier, 2014-09) Baird, Sarah ; Gong, Erick ; McIntosh, Craig ; Özler, Berk

An extensive multi-disciplinary literature examines the effects of learning one's HIV status on subsequent risky sexual behaviors. However, many of these studies rely on non-experimental designs; use self-reported outcome measures; or both. In this study, we investigate the effects of a randomly assigned home based HIV testing and counseling (HTC) intervention on risky sexual behaviors and schooling investments among school-age females in Malawi. We find no overall effects on HIV, Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-2), or achievement test scores at follow-up. However, among the small group of individuals who tested positive for HIV, we find a large increase in the probability of HSV-2 infection, with this effect being stronger among those surprised by their test results. Similarly, those surprised by HIV-negative test results have significantly higher achievement test scores at follow-up, consistent with increased returns to investments in human capital.
Qualitative Study of the Feasibility of HPV Vaccine Delivery to Young Adolescent Girls in Vietnam: Evidence from a Government-Implemented Demonstration Program

(BioMed Central, 2014-06-05) LaMontagne, D. Scott ; Nghi, Nguyen Quy ; Nga, Le Thi ; Janmohamed, Amynah ; Huyen, Dang Thi Thanh ; Hien, Nguyen Tran ; Davis Tsu, Vivien

Introduction of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in national programs has proceeded apace since 2006, mostly in high-income countries. Recently concluded pilots of HPV vaccination in low-income countries have provided important lessons learned for these settings; however, rigorous evaluations of the feasibility of these delivery strategies that effectively reach young adolescents have been few. This paper presents results from a qualitative evaluation of a demonstration program which implemented school-based and health center–based HPV vaccinations to all girls in grade 6, or 11 years of age, for two years in four districts of Vietnam.
Monitoring and Evaluating the Impact of National School-Based Deworming in Kenya: Study Design and Baseline Results

(BioMed Central, 2013-07-05) Mwandawiro, Charles S. ; Nikolay, Birgit ; Kihara, Jimmy H. ; Ozier, Owen ; Mukoko, Dunstan A. ; Mwanje, Mariam T. ; Hakobyan, Anna ; Pullan, Rachel L. ; Brooker, Simon J. ; Njenga, Sammy M.

An increasing number of countries in Africa and elsewhere are developing national plans for the control of neglected tropical diseases. A key component of such plans is school-based deworming (SBD) for the control of soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) and schistosomiasis. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of national programs is essential to ensure they are achieving their stated aims and to evaluate when to reduce the frequency of treatment or when to halt it altogether. The article describes the M&E design of the Kenya national SBD program and presents results from the baseline survey conducted in early 2012.