Journal Issue: World Bank Research Observer, Volume 37, Issue 2
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Volume
37
Number
2
Issue Date
2022-08-01
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Social Protection for Child Development in Crisis
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2021-06-18) Aurino, Elisabetta; Giunti, Sara
Globally, humanitarian needs have reached an historically unprecedented scale, undermining the ability of affected children to survive, grow, and thrive. Social protection holds the promise of addressing acute needs and risks faced by children in crisis contexts, while allowing for human capital investments. We review evidence of the impact of emergency cash, food, and other in-kind transfers implemented by governments or humanitarian actors on child development in different contexts. Compared with development settings, rigorous evidence for crises is limited. Most existing studies focus on either schooling or acute malnutrition, highlighting that transfers can mitigate the detrimental effects of crises on these outcomes. Evidence on linear growth, micronutrient deficiencies, health, labor, learning, psychosocial outcomes, and child protection is limited. Also, most studies are set in contexts characterized by high institutional fragility in which emergency social protection is undertaken by international organizations, while evidence from settings where institutional capacity for shock-responsive social protection exists is scarce. Further gaps relate to the cost-effectiveness of alternative program designs and delivery modalities; heterogeneity by child and household backgrounds; and longer-term effects of interventions. Filling these gaps is critical to support child-sensitive approaches to social protection in crises to effectively pursue Sustainable Development Goal 1.
EdTech in Developing Countries
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2021-08-02) Rodriguez-Segura, Daniel
The emergence of educational technology (“EdTech”) in developing countries has been received as a promising avenue to address some of the most challenging policy questions within educational systems. In this paper, I review and synthesize all existing studies with credible causal identification frameworks of EdTech interventions in developing countries. While other studies review the evidence for EdTech interventions in developed countries, there is currently no equivalent study for developing contexts, in spite of the rising number of studies being produced. I classify studies into four thematic categories based on the type of EdTech intervention analyzed: Access to technology; technology-enabled behavioral interventions; improvements to instruction; and self-led learning. I find that EdTech interventions centered around self-led learning and improvements to instruction are the most effective forms of EdTech at raising learning outcomes. Similarly, technology-enabled behavioral interventions are less promising for generating large effects but highly cost-effective given their typically low marginal costs. Although expanding access to technology alone is not sufficient to improve learning, it is a necessary first step for some other types of interventions. More broadly, the overall success of interventions rests on the thoughtful customization of the EdTech solution to the policy constraints at hand. Finally, EdTech interventions across all thematic areas can and should act as complements by leveraging their respective comparative advantages to address deficiencies within educational systems in developing countries.
Do Government Incentives to Promote R&D Increase Private R&D Investment?
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2022-05-18) Choi, Jieun
R&D incentives are a popular policy option to encourage private R&D worldwide. This paper provides an updated survey of R&D incentives’ effect on private R&D investment, including evaluations from developing countries. It assesses the pattern of R&D incentives, and reviews recent literature on the efficacy of these incentives. It reveals that R&D incentives generally increase private R&D, but to a varying extent depending on incentive types, countries’ income levels, industry and firm characteristics, and the design and implementation of the incentives. Overall, variability of the effect on private R&D is greater for direct incentives than indirect incentives. The effect of indirect incentives is found to be smaller in developing countries than developed countries, contrary to the predictions of growth theory. This paper investigates the potential reasons for these findings and summarizes policy implications for governments considering upgrading or adopting R&D incentives.
Factors Affecting Technological Diffusion Through Social Networks
(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2021-07-16) Cheng, Hoi Wai Jackie
Network theory-based interventions could be particularly effective for promoting technology adoption when information friction serves as the major obstacle to technology diffusion. To inform policy makers interested in such interventions, this paper systematically reviews empirical evidence on determinants of how social networks shape technology diffusion. It identifies three sets of factors that individually and jointly affect technological diffusion on social networks: Population characteristics, including those describe overall network structures and key economic agents’ network positions and technology sophistication; technology parameters; and information propagation mechanisms. Accurate social network assessment—crucial for the formulation of network interventions—relies on making careful selection out of the many measures of network characteristics and layers of socioeconomic interactions to examine, and on accurately defining the scope and size of network data to collect. Evidence indicates effective network interventions should aim to introduce new technologies first to economic agents with high centrality or clustering, sufficient resemblance to average population, and whom are incentivized to communicate with others.