World Bank Report Finds Rise in Global Wealth, but Inequality Persists  Global wealth grew significantly over the past two decades but per capita wealth declined or stagnated in more than two dozen countries in various income brackets, says a new World Bank report. Going beyond traditional measures such as GDP, the report uses wealth to monitor countries’ economic progress and sustainability.  The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 tracks the wealth of 141 countries between 1995 and 2014 by aggregating natural capital (such as forests and minerals), human capital (earnings over a person’s lifetime); produced capital (buildings, infrastructure, etc.) and net foreign assets. Human capital was the largest component of wealth overall while natural capital made up nearly half of wealth in low-income countries, the report found.

Going to university is more important than ever for young people …The World Bank has produced estimates of this return for 139 economies. It varies from place to place, but is substantial everywhere [returns]…

Stallings program download and manual The electronic version of the Stallings instrument was developed in collaboration with the World Bank, and is publicly available under permissive open source license. It is a client server software. It requires phones or tablets for the actual data collection, and a central synchronization server. The Stallings instrument software can run on most Android based phones or tablets. It requires Android 2.1 or later, and either WiFi or 3g internet access. The Stallings program and instructions for download are available here. The manual, which explains how to use the software, includes detailed instructions on how to properly conduct a classroom observation. It is available in the following languages: English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. If you don’t have access to an Android there’s a paper based version of the instrument and a user manual here.