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Progress in educational development in the world since 1900 has been slow and uneven between countries. Providing basic education for all children in developing countries has been and remains an unmet challenge of governments and international organizations alike. This is in sharp contrast to recent findings in the economics literature on the catalytic role of human capital for economic growth and social development in general. Using a newly constructed matched data set on education and national accounts in the 1950 to 2010 period, this paper estimates the loss of income and equity associated with not having a faster rate of human capital accumulation, using alternative methodologies and specific country examples. Such loss is projected backward (1900-1950) and forward (2010-2050) using plausible assumptions regarding what countries could have done in the past or may do in the future to accelerate human capital formation. The findings suggest that the welfare loss in terms of per capita income conservatively ranges from about 7 to 10 percent. Improved educational attainment is also shown to have an effect in reducing income inequality.

Access & Equity in Basic Education --- Achieving Shared Growth --- Economic Growth --- Economic Theory & Research --- Education --- Education For All --- Educational Development --- Human Capital Accumulation --- Income Inequality --- Primary Education --- Social Development

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This paper revisits traditional human capital models and proposes a new conceptual framework of human capital accumulation, anchored in skills development, to illustrate the phenomenon and implications of youth economic disengagement. In the framework, youth economic disengagement is defined as a state (temporary or permanent) where individuals stop accumulating human capital due to inadequate access and quality of opportunities for skills development through formal education and employment. Total economic disengagement is a rational choice that individuals make when (i) the formal education system and labor market do not contribute to build skills that are valued by the labor market, and (ii) the costs related to economic engagement (that is, studying and working) surpass its benefits. The phenomenon of economic disengagement has lifelong implications that not only constrain and restrain future earnings, but also undermine prospects for improvements in productivity and economic growth.

Education --- Employment and Unemployment --- Human Capital Accumulation --- Labor Markets --- Neets --- Skills Development --- Social Protections and Labor --- Wage Determination --- Youth Economic Disengagement

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This paper estimates the long-term effects on human capital accumulation and subsequent labor market outcomes of in utero and early childhood exposure to the civil war in El Salvador (1980-92), the second longest and deadliest civil conflict in Central America. Identification is obtained from spatial and intertemporal variation in the intensity of the conflict drawn from historical archive data comprising records of human casualties, disappearances, and refugees. The results show that people born in highly violent areas during the civil war saw a reduction in their probability of being employed by 6 percentage points, and of getting a high-skilled job by 5 percentage points, 20 to 30 years after it happened. The civil war also reduced their education by 0.8 year, as well as their enrollment and literacy rates. Subgroup analysis indicates that exposed males and indigenous groups experienced the largest losses in human capital and had weaker performance in the labor market.

Access and Equity in Basic Education --- Armed Conflict --- Civil War --- Early Childhood Development --- Education For All --- Employment --- Enrollment --- Human Capital Accumulation --- Inequality --- Labor Markets --- Literacy --- Long-Term Impact --- Refugees --- Rural Labor Markets --- Wages --- Welfare Impact

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This paper examines the post-reform economic growth in three Central American economies - Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama. From 1995 to 2015, each economy witnessed phenomenal shifts in labor market participation and occupational distribution of women. If the innate talent for a job did not change differently across genders, the occupational changes suggest that many talented women in the mid-1990s were in professions that did not conform to their comparative advantage. The paper studies the evolution of the occupational distribution using a model of occupational choice in which three forces create frictions to efficient allocation - discrimination in labor markets, obstacles to human capital accumulation, and preferences (or social norms). The analysis shows that the underlying improvement in talent allocation over the past two decades had a quantitative impact on growth in Costa Rica and Panama. Decomposing the aggregate effects reveals that the gains were driven by declines in obstacles to human capital accumulation. In contrast, shifts in labor market discrimination created headwinds for expansion. The aggregate effects in El Salvador are relatively mild and noisy to the extent that the qualitative effect is difficult to pin down. Nonetheless, the analysis finds that the preference for market work has increased sharply in El Salvador for both genders and has proved to be a drag on growth.

Economic Growth --- Economic Reform --- Enterprise Development and Reform --- Female Labor Force Participation --- Gender --- Gender and Development --- Gender and Rural Development --- Hiring Bias --- Human Capital Accumulation --- Labor Force Participation --- Labor Market --- Labor Market Discrimination --- Labor Markets --- Labor Productivity --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Occupational Distribution --- Preferences and Norms --- Private Sector Development --- Rural Labor Markets --- Social Norms

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This paper estimates the impacts of secondary school on human capital, occupational choice, and fertility for young adults in Kenya. The probability of admission to government secondary school rises sharply at a score close to the national mean on a standardized 8th grade examination, permitting the estimation of causal effects of schooling in a regression discontinuity framework. The analysis combines administrative test score data with a recent survey of young adults to estimate these impacts. The results show that secondary schooling increases human capital, as measured by performance on cognitive tests included in the survey. For men, there is a drop in the probability of low-skill self-employment, as well as suggestive evidence of a rise in the probability of formal employment. The opportunity to attend secondary school also reduces teen pregnancy among women.

Academic year --- Adults --- Average schooling --- Basic education --- Catholic schools --- Childbearing --- Class size --- Class-size --- Cognitive performance --- Cognitive test --- Development goals --- Development policy --- Disasters --- District education --- Early marriage --- Educated parents --- Education --- Education for all --- Education investments --- Education offices --- Education policy --- Education system --- Educational attainment --- Educational participation --- Effects of education --- Examination --- Fees --- Female education --- Female schooling --- Fertility --- First births --- First child --- Free primary education --- Gender parity --- Girls' schools --- Grade repetition --- Health, nutrition and population --- High school --- HIV --- Human capital --- Human capital accumulation --- Human development --- Impact of education --- Infant --- Infant health --- Labor market --- Labor markets --- Learning --- Learning outcomes --- Level of education --- Literacy --- Low-income country --- Marriage --- Millennium development goals --- Mother --- National boundaries --- National schools --- Natural disasters --- Number of schools --- Number of students --- Older men --- Parents' education --- Policies --- Policy --- Policy change --- Policy discussions --- Policy research --- Policy research working paper --- Population --- Population growth --- Population policies --- Populations --- Pregnancies --- Pregnancy --- Pregnancy by age --- Primary education --- Primary education policy --- Primary education system --- Primary school --- Primary school leaving examination --- Primary schooling --- Primary schools --- Private schools --- Private secondary schools --- Progress --- Public examination system --- Public schools --- Public services --- Publishers --- Rates of population --- Respect --- Returns to education --- Rural areas --- School --- School administrators --- School attendance --- School completion --- School construction --- School enrollment --- School entry --- School fees --- School leaders --- School leaving examination --- School participation --- School quality --- Schooling --- Schools --- Secondary education --- Secondary school --- Secondary schooling --- Secondary schools --- Sex --- Sexual behavior --- Skills --- Spouse --- Student achievement --- Students --- Teachers --- Teen --- Teen pregnancy --- Teens --- Tertiary education --- Textbooks --- Universal primary education --- Urban centers --- Values --- Vocational education --- Vocational schools --- War --- Women --- Young adults --- Young men --- Young women