The World’s Largest Public-Works Program – A Safety Net but Not More Jobs: Guest Post by Laura Zimmermann
This is the second in the series of papers from graduates on the job market this year.
South Asia
Party politics affects the spatial distribution of growth: Guest post by Paul Novosad
This is the sixth of our series of posts by PhD students on the job market.
Do Things Have to Get Worse for Women Before They Get Better?
While the U.S Presidential Debate on Tuesday night brought to the fore issues of gender equity in the U.S.
The Impact of Vocational Training for Young Women in Delhi
One popular solution to unemployment is to provide the unemployed with more skills through training. However, the impacts of vocational training in developed countries have been at most modest.
Was de Soto wrong? Impacts of a formalization experiment in Sri Lanka
“There is nothing in this book that needs to be confirmed by complex laboratory experiments. You have only to open the window or step into the street”, Hernando de Soto, The Other Path, p14., 1989.
Give a man a fish and feed him for life? Experimental evidence on the long-term effects of grants on Sri Lankan Microenterprises
Typical policies to improve the incomes of poor households and their businesses are based on the sustained provision of services – be it microfinance with multiple loan cycles and regular meetings; conditional cash transfers with regular transfers over a period of years; or business training programs which are based on the idea that capital along is not enough – as in the proverb “give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for life”.
Schools is Good: A Reply to Lant Pritchett
Lant Pritchett once said to me “Thanks for the comments. As usual they are all very smart and well-informed and I disagree with most.” I feel similarly regarding his very popular piece posted here last week (already one of the top 10 most popular posts in our blog's short history) on how CCTs are forcing children in developing countries into terrible schools. So, here goes a reply…
Dear Lant,
Seeing a child like a state: Holding the poor accountable for bad schools -- Guest post by Lant Pritchett
In the early 20th century Helen Todd, a factory inspector in Chicago, interviewed 500 children working in factories, often in dangerous and unpleasant conditions. She asked children the question: “If your father had a good job and you didn’t have to work, which would you rather do—go to school or work in a factory?” 412 said they would choose factory work. One fourteen year old girl, who was interviewed lacquering canes in an attic working with both intense heat and the constant smell of turpentine, said “School is the fiercest thing you can come up against. F
Haryana's scarce women tell potential suitors: "No loo, no I do" - Guest Post by Yaniv Stopnitzky
There are "missing women" everywhere. Parents worldwide, and especially in Asia, have strong preferences for sons over daughters, which causes them to selectively abort female fetuses (Arnold et al., 2002;
Stitching together the future: the effects of the garment industry on girls’ schooling in Bangladesh -Guest Post by Rachel Heath
We want to increase (girls) education… but what’s the best way to do this?