Belarus to cooperate with World Bank’s Human Capital Project On 8 January, Belarus’ prime minister signed Resolution No.2р to set up an interdepartmental working group to cooperate with the World Bank as part of the Human Capital Project…

Education Sector Recovery | Disaster Recovery Guidance Series

This Note provides practical guidance to national governments about key priorities for the education sector following a major disaster or crisis. It specifies a set of considerations and actions to help ensure that the education sector can:

(1) maintain its core functions in the midst of a crisis;

(2) allow for streamlined recovery from shocks;

(3) minimize disaster and conflict risks; and

(4) improve the sector’s adaptation and resilience to future crises.

The Note also complements the World Bank’s Recovery and Reconstruction Roadmap for Safer and More Resilient Schools (GFDRR 2018), an innovative tool that governments can use as a guide to designing and implementing systematic actions to support the recovery, reconstruction, and improvement of education sector infrastructure in the aftermath of a disaster.

The Future of Work Requires Investments in Human Capital The demand for workers who are good at complex problem-solving, interactions with clients and colleagues, and able to adapt to new tools and technologies is rising, while the demand for less advanced skills that can be replaced by technology is declining. Neglecting investments in human capital can dramatically weaken a country’s competitiveness. “The world is healthier and more educated than ever,” notes the World Bank in a new report, The Human Capital Project. “But a large and unfinished agenda remains. Life expectancy in the developing world still lags far behind that of rich countries… Worldwide, more than 260 million children and youth are not in school. Meanwhile, nearly 60 percent of primary school children in developing countries fail to achieve minimum proficiency in learning…

World Development Report 2018 on Education now available in Russian

Bosses matter: The effects of managers on workers’ performance A good boss can have a substantial positive effect on the productivity of a typical worker. While much has been written about the peer effects of working with good peers, the effects of working with good bosses appear much more substantial. A good boss can enhance the performance of their employees and can lower the quit rate. This may also be relevant in situations where it is challenging to employ incentive pay structures, such as when quality is difficult to observe. As such, firms should invest sufficiently in the hiring of good bosses with skills that are appropriate to their role.

Key topics related to the use of new technologies in education Oh, you work at the World Bank, someone recently remarked to me. It must be great to have access to so much information and data about so many things. Yes, that’s certainly a perk of the job, I responded, although it can be overwhelming at times. What’s more interesting, and exciting, at least to me (and, truth be told, overwhelming as well), is the access to so many fascinating questions…

Labor Market Effects of Demographic Shifts and Migration in OECD Countries The labor force of each industrial country is being shaped by three forces: ageing, education and migration. Drawing on a new database for the OECD countries and a standard analytical framework, this paper focuses on the relative and aggregate effects of these three forces on wages across different skill and age groups over 2000 to 2010. The variation in the age and educational structure of the labor force emerges as the dominant influence on wage changes. The impact is uniform and egalitarian: in almost all countries, the changes in the age and skill structure favor the low-skilled and hurt the highly skilled across age groups. Immigration plays a relatively minor role, except in a handful of open countries, like Australia and Canada, where it accentuates the wage-equalizing impact of ageing and education. Emigration is the only inegalitarian influence, especially in Ireland and a few Eastern European countries which have seen significant outflows of high-skilled labor to Western European Union countries.

Informality: Why Is It So Widespread and How Can It Be Reduced? In a typical developing country, about 70 percent of workers and 30 percent of production are informal. Informality is a cause and a consequence of the lack of economic and institutional development. It implies productive inefficiency and a culture of evasion and noncompliance. Informality, however, exists because it offers the advantages of flexibility and employment in economies with low labor productivity and an excessive regulatory burden. Under these conditions, if there were no informality, there would be greater unemployment, poverty, and crime. A well-conceived formalization strategy should seek to make formality more attractive. As the causes of informality are complex and interrelated, the reforms to reduce it must include all relevant areas. A formalization strategy should consist of making labor markets flexible, reforming social protection, increasing labor productivity, making the regulatory framework and the justice system efficient, and rationalizing the tax system.

Education as a factor of employment and income (Georgia) The article deals with the analysis of the education role with regard to the impact on income and employment. To identify the link between education and unemployment, and…

In Turkey one additional year of education increases individual wages by around 8.5 percent…

Provincial Competitiveness and Labour Market Returns in Vietnam … better provincial governance has a positive effect on labor market wages…even after controlling for worker characteristics, geographic regions, urban context, economic sector and industry type. A better competitive environment for business attracts more firms to enter the market, which in turn creates greater demand for labor. Subsequently, higher demand for labor pushes up wages…