03. Journals
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These are journal articles published in World Bank journals as well as externally by World Bank authors.
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Publication
Changing Pedagogy to Improve Skills in Preschools: Experimental Evidence from Peru
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2019-12-11)Changing pedagogical practices is a promising, cost-effective avenue for improving education in developing countries, especially when done without changing current inputs such as teachers and instruction time. This article presents the results of a randomized evaluation of a program that aimed at changing the pedagogical approach used to teach the existing national mathematics curriculum. The program provides tools to regular preschool teachers to use an inquiry- and problem-based learning approach to tailor instruction to preschoolers in Peru. The results show an improvement of overall mathematics outcomes, which persist for some content areas even one year after the program ended. In contrast to results from previous research that suggest mathematics programs are biased along gender and socioeconomic lines, there is no evidence of differential effects by gender, language spoken at home, or proxies for socioeconomic status. Results also imply persistent stronger impacts on students whose teachers have university degrees. -
Publication
Twenty Years of Wage Inequality in Latin America
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2019-12-06)This article documents an inverse U-shape in the evolution of wage inequality in Latin America since 1995, with a sharp reduction starting in 2002. The Gini coefficient of wages increased from 42 to 44 between 1995 and 2002 and declined to 39 by 2015. Between 2002 and 2015, the 90/10 log hourly earnings ratio decreased by 26 percent. The decline since 2002 was characterized by rising wages across the board, but especially at the bottom of the wage distribution in each country. Triggered by a rapid expansion of educational attainment, the wages of college and high school graduates fell relative to the wages of workers with only primary education. The premium for labor market experience also fell significantly. However, the compression of wages was not entirely driven by changes in the wage structure across skill groups. Two-thirds of the decline in the variance of wages took place within skill groups. Changes in the sectoral, occupational, and formal/informal composition of jobs matter for the process of reduction in inequality, but they do not fully account for the fall in within-skill variance. Evidence based on longitudinal matched employer-employee administrative data suggests that an important driver was falling wage dispersion across firms. -
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Implications of Demographic, Religious, and Enrollment Trends for the Footprint of Faith-Based Schools Globally
(Taylor and Francis, 2019-11-25)Faith-based schools play an important role today in the provision of education globally. Are the schools likely to continue to play such a role in the future? If so, where is that role likely to be most prominent? This paper considers these questions on the basis of long-term demographic, religious, and school enrollment trends. The trends suggest that enrollment in faith-based schools will continue to grow rapidly, as has been the case over the last few decades. But there will also be a fundamental shift, with a rising concentration of students in faith-based schools located in Africa. This may have implications given the learning crisis affecting the continent. -
Publication
Symposium on Catholic Schools and the Changing Global Landscape for Faith-Based Education: An Introduction
(Taylor and Francis, 2019-11-25)Despite the fact that faith-based schools serve tens of millions of students (the estimate for the Catholic Church is at 62 million students enrolled in K12 schools globally in 2016), the role of faith-based schools remains largely ignored in policy discussions. The articles and essays in this symposium aim to inform current debates on the role of faith-based schools, and particularly Catholic schools. The focus on Catholic schools is driven by the fact that they are the largest network of faith-based schools globally. It is clear however that many issues faced by Catholic schools are also faced by other faith-based schools. -
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Measuring the Contribution of Faith-Based Schools to Human Capital Wealth: Estimates for the Catholic Church
(Taylor and Francis, 2019-11-25)This paper provides estimates of the contribution of faith-based schools to human capital wealth using recent World Bank data. Wealth is the assets base that enables nations to generate future income. Estimates suggest that human capital wealth accounts for two thirds of global wealth, a much larger proportion than natural capital and produced capital. This paper’s analysis relies on an assessment of the share of human capital wealth attributed to educational attainment, and the share of contribution of Catholic schools to educational attainment. The analysis suggests that Catholic schools contribute at least US$ 12 trillion to the changing wealth of nations. -
Publication
Education is Forbidden: The Effect of the Boko Haram Conflict on Education in North-East Nigeria
(Elsevier, 2019-11)This paper quantifies the impact of the Boko Haram conflict on various educational outcomes of individuals living in North-East Nigeria during the period 2009–2016. Using individual panel fixed-effects regressions and exploiting over-time and cross-village variation in conflict intensity, we show that conflict reduces school enrollment. The negative effect is larger for children who are no longer of mandatory school age. We do not find differential effects by gender, religion, or type of residential location. Additional results from a difference-in-differences estimation strategy indicate that conflict reduces the years of education completed. -
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Beyond Poverty Escapes—Social Mobility in Developing Countries: A Review Article
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2019-08)While social mobility in advanced economies has received extensive scholarly attention, crucial knowledge gaps remain about the patterns and determinants of income, educational, and occupational mobility in developing countries. Focusing on intergenerational mobility, we find that estimates often differ greatly for the same country, depending on the concept and measure of mobility used, on variable constructions and on the data set utilized. There is also wide variation in mobility across regions and social groups. We discuss data and income and other variable measurement challenges when agriculture and the informal sector absorb most of the workforce, and illustrate why occupational classifications and widely used mobility measures may perform less well in such settings. Factors beyond those featuring in the literature on advanced economies are plausible determinants of social mobility, particularly of what we call moderate and large ascents (and descents), in developing country contexts. We highlight the lack of in-depth understanding of the multiple and often localized hurdles to such more pronounced progress. Similar knowledge gaps exist for large descents, which give rise to particularly profound concerns in low-income settings. We report and touch on the implications of suggestive findings of a disconnect between educational and occupational mobility. Innovative research requires critical engagement with theory and with methodology, identification, and data challenges that may overlap or deviate notably from those encountered in advanced economies. -
Publication
What Explains Uneven Female Labor Force Participation Levels and Trends in Developing Countries?
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2019-08)Rapid fertility decline, a strong expansion of female education, and favorable economic conditions should have promoted female labor force participation in developing countries. Yet trends in female labor force participation rates (FLFP) have been quite heterogeneous, rising strongly in Latin America and stagnating in many other regions, while improvements were modest in the Middle East and female participation even fell in South Asia. These trends are inconsistent with secular theories such as the feminization U hypothesis but point to an interplay of initial conditions, economic structure, structural change, and persistent gender norms and values. We find that differences in levels are heavily affected by historical differences in economic structure that circumscribe women's economic opportunities still today. Shocks can bring about drastic changes, with the experience of socialism being the most important shock to women's labor force participation. Trends are heavily affected by how much women's labor force participation depends on their household's economic conditions, how jobs deemed appropriate for more educated women are growing relative to the supply of more educated women, whether growth strategies are promoting female employment, and to what extent women are able to break down occupational barriers within the sectors where women predominantly work. -
Publication
Can Solar Lanterns Improve Youth Academic Performance? Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2019-06)We conducted an experimental intervention in unelectrified areas of northern Bangladesh to investigate the effectiveness of solar products in improving children’s educational achievement. We found that treated households substituted solar lanterns for kerosene-based lighting products, helping to decrease total household expenditure. Solar lanterns increased the children’s home-study hours, particularly at night and before exams. The solar lanterns initially led to an increase in school attendance, but this effect diminished over time. However, the increased study hours and initial improvement in school attendance did not translate into improved academic performance. Varying the number of solar products within the treated households did not alter these results. Analyses that exploited the school grade treatment intensity also provided no evidence suggesting that spillover effects explained the “no academic performance effects.” These findings suggest that improving the home-study environment solely through the provision of solar products may have a limited impact on children’s educational achievement. -
Publication
Pluralism, the Public Purse, and Education: An International Estimate of Savings to State Budgets from K-12 Catholic Schools
(Taylor and Francis, 2019-05-24)According to Church statistics, the Catholic Church has 35 million children enrolled in its primary schools globally, and 20 million children enrolled in its secondary schools. At both levels, enrollment has increased over time globally. While there are debates on whether Catholic schools perform better than public schools, they clearly generate savings for state budgets in many countries since parents choosing these schools often pay for most of the cost of their children’s education. This paper estimates budget savings for states from Catholic schools in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and selected partner countries. In the 38 countries for which estimates are computed, total annual savings are valued at US$ 63 billion in purchasing power parity terms.