Person:
Hong, Seo Yeon

Profile Picture
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Degrees
ORCID
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated: February 21, 2024
Biography
Seo Yeon Hong is an economist focusing on the analytics and science for food and nutrition at the World Food Programme. She previously was a consultant economist in the South Asia Region of the World Bank Education Global Practice for more than 10 years. Her specialization is in development economics. Hong has studied and engaged in human development sector (health, education, and social protection) policies in many developing countries around the world. She holds a doctoral degree in public analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an MBA from the KDI School of Public Policy and Management.

Filters

2020 - 202532000 - 20192
Browse document type tree
Reset filters

Settings

Statistics
Citations

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Enhancing Skills in Sri Lanka for Inclusion, Recovery, and Resilience
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-12-07) Sosale, Shobhana; Hong, Seo Yeon; Subasinghe, Shalika; Herat, Hiran
    Sri Lanka has confronted and is grappling with a number of exogenous shocks, including the devastating 2004 tsunami; the 2008 global recession; the COVID-19 global pandemic; and, more recently, the ongoing “triple crisis” (fuel, food, fiscal). The country is now at a crossroads. An ongoing process of strengthening skills and improving education will be crucial to Sri Lanka’s economic recovery. Sri Lanka is transitioning from a rural-based to a modern, urbanized economy, and better jobs are being created, especially in services. To remain globally competitive, the Sri Lankan workforce must gain the technical competencies and higher-order cognitive skills that meet the needs of local and foreign labor markets. As a result, Sri Lanka will need to transform its current skills development system and processes to align them to emerging jobs; improve their market relevance; and develop an effective, inclusive, and accessible education and training system for skilling, reskilling, and upskilling the stock and flow of the workforce. "Enhancing Skills in Sri Lanka for Inclusion, Recovery, and Resilience" addresses these urgent issues and provides recommendations for educators and policy makers.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Zambia: Can Financial Incentives Improve the Last-Mile Delivery of Textbooks?
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06) Cao, Xiaonan; Mupuwaliywa, Mupuwaliywa; Hong, Seo Yeon
    Zambia has invested heavily on education with an allocation of about 20 percent of the government budget, but this investment has not translated into better student learning outcomes in primary education. Among the main reasons for this is the severe shortage of learning materials, particularly textbooks in both English and local languages. A public expenditure review of the Zambian education system has shown that 91 percent of schools lack textbooks and on average five to six pupils share less than one textbook, including textbooks in local languages To address this shortage, the REACH Trust Fund provided a grant to investigate the factors related to the availability of textbooks in schools and to evaluate a set of financial incentive mechanisms for improving the last-mile delivery of textbooks. The questions that the research set out to answer were: What is the current status of textbook distribution in Zambia and what are the factors that influence their availability? Do financial incentives have any impact on textbook distribution and availability? What kind of financing scheme might be effective in improving the last-mile delivery of textbooks? Does providing information to schools about textbook availability increase the numbers that are available in schools? A study was conducted in 2018–2019 with the objective of answering these questions. It focused on textbooks procured for use in Zambian literacy and English courses for students in grade two in 2016 and grade four in 2018. The study surveyed 243 schools in 27 districts in Zambia that had not received grade four Zambian language literacy course books until July 2019 as a result of the severe resource constraints that they were experiencing. The study used the difference-in-difference estimation methodology to identify the causal links among the factors contributing to availability and delivery of textbooks to schools.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Impact of Financial Incentives and the Role of Information and Communication in Last-Mile Delivery of Textbooks in Zambia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06) Cao, Xiaonan; Mupuwaliywa, Mupuwaliywa; Hong, Seo Yeon
    This study investigates the impact of financial incentives and role of information and communication in textbook availability (especially those in local languages) in Zambia. It uses the difference-in-difference estimation method to identify the causal links among the factors. The data used for the study were collected in 2017 and 2019 for baseline and end-line information. The study shows that providing financial incentives to schools increases the likelihood of a school receiving textbooks by 0.126. This improvement is mainly driven by raising the likelihood of a school collecting the books from zone-center schools and District Education Board Secretaries offices, by 0.356 and 0.158, respectively. Providing financial incentives to District Education Board Secretaries does not have any impact on the likelihood of a school receiving textbooks. This is partly because the current textbook delivery practice in districts and communities relies heavily on the action of schools and less on District Education Board Secretaries. Thus, providing incentives directly to schools seems to intensify the current last-mile textbook distribution practice and has better results. In addition, providing information to schools on the availability of textbooks at District Education Board Secretaries offices improves the outcomes significantly with minimum cost.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    The Heterogeneous Effects of a Food Price Crisis on Child School Enrollment and Labor : Evidence from Pakistan
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-08) Hou, Xiaohui; Hong, Seo Yeon
    Using a panel survey, this paper investigates how the increase in food prices in Pakistan in 2008-2010 affected children's school enrollment and labor. The causal identification relies on geographical variations in the price of food (wheat). The results show that the negative impacts of food price increase on school enrollment differ by gender, economic status, and the presence of siblings. The negative effects on school do not directly correspond to the increase in child labor because the transition from being idle to labor activity or from school to being idle are significant, particularly among the poor girls. The results also show that children in households with access to agricultural land are not affected by higher food prices. The analyses reveal a more dynamic picture of the impact of food price increase on child status and contribute to broader policy discussion to mitigate the impact of crises on children's education.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    The Impact of the Food Price Crisis on Consumption and Caloric Availability in Pakistan : Evidence from Repeated Cross-sectional and Panel Data
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-11) Friedman, Jed; Hou, Xiaohui; Hong, Seo Yeon
    Welfare losses from the 2008 food price crisis in Pakistan are deepening the gap between poor and non poor populations and further increasing inequality between the provinces. To estimate welfare losses, the reduction in caloric availability at household level is measured. The analysis of calorie intake by source supports the notion that rural households were shielded from the worst effects of the crisis by their capacity to grow their own food. Compensating variation estimates suggest that the average household would need 38 percent of its total precrisis expenditure to maintain precrisis consumption levels. The impact of the food price crisis (measured as the percentage of total expenditure required to restore consumption to the precrisis level) peaked at the end of 2008 to twice as high as at the start of the year. Average household caloric availability fell by almost 8 percent between 2006 and first half of 2008. Urban households were relatively worse off than rural households during the crisis. Income gains from sales of agricultural commodities produced by rural households presumably offset the negative impact of the food crisis to some degree. The drawdown of assets over 2008-10 was another important coping mechanism, especially for households without access to land.