Education and Development: Latin America and the Caribbean PDF Download

Author: Thomas J. La Belle
Publisher: Los Angeles : Latin American Center, University of California
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 770

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Author: María Marta Ferreyra
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 146481015X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
"Higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean has expanded dramatically in the past 15 years, as the average gross enrollment rate has more than doubled, and many new institutions and programs have been opened. Although higher education access has become more equitable, and higher education supply has become more varied, many of the 'new' students in the system are, on average, less academically ready than are their more advantaged counterparts. Furthermore, only half of higher education students, on average, complete their degree, and labor market returns to higher education vary greatly across institutions and programs. Thus, higher education is at a crossroads today. Given the region's urgency to raise productivity in a low-growth, fiscally constrained environment, going past this crossroads requires the formation of skilled human capital fast and efficiently. 'At a Crossroads: Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean' contributes to the discussion by studying quality, variety, and equity of higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean. The book presents comprehensive evidence on the recent higher education expansion and evolution of higher education labor market returns. Using novel data and state-of-the-art methods, it studies demand and supply drivers of the recent expansion. It investigates the behavior of institutions and students and explores the unintended consequences of large-scale higher education policies. Framing the analysis are the singular characteristics of the higher education market and the market segmentation induced by the variety of students and institutions in the system. At this crossroads, a role emerges for incentives, information, accountability, and choice."

Author: Mercedes Mateo Díaz
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464809038
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Investments in education across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have transformed the lives of millions of girls and the prospects of their families and societies. Unleashing the full economic potential of women is nevertheless still a curtailed issue in the region: just about half of women are unable to participate in paid work. The majority of the population out of the labor market is women between the ages of 24 and 45. This is the largest share of the available pool of unused human capital countries have, and where mothers of young children are concentrated. This book argues that more and better childcare constitutes a fundamental policy option to improve female outcomes in the labor market, but countries need to pay particular attention to the design and features of such services. First-rate educational programs will be useless if children are not enrolled or do not attend formal education centers. A large program expansion will be wasted if parents cannot enroll their children because they are unable to reach the center, don’t trust its quality, if the program is too expensive, or if work and care schedules are not compatible. Through an integrated framework applied to each country and an overview of the existing evidence, this book addresses the why and what questions about policy relevant instruments to achieve female labor participation. Parts I and II of the book lay out the motivation for Latin-American and Caribbean countries to act depicting their current situation both in terms of women’s labor participation and the use and provision of childcare services. Moreover, this book tackles the how question contributing to the incipient evidence about factors affecting the take-up of programs and demand for childcare services and other informal care arrangements. Part III of the book explores how to improve services and implement more and better formal, center-based care arrangements for young children. It looks at international benchmarks, discusses different experiences and proposes specific actions to solve potential inequalities in access to childcare.

Author: Emiliana Vegas
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821381644
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Early childhood development outcomes play an important role throughout a person's life, affecting one's income-earning capacity and productivity, longevity, health, and cognitive ability. The deleterious effects of poor early childhood development outcomes can be long-lasting, affecting school attainment, employment, wages, criminality, and social integration of adults. The authors first take stock of early childhood development indicators in the region and explore access to early childhood development services for children of different backgrounds. They review recent evidence on the impact of early childhood development interventions in the region and investigate more deeply a selection of programs in Latin America and the Caribbean to distill lessons related to their design, implementation and institutionalization processes. The book concludes with a discussion of the challenges of scaling up and presents policy options to develop national early childhood development policies and programs that may be effective and sustained over time.

Author: Inter-American Development Bank
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349949299
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Why should people - and economies - save? This book on the savings problem in Latin America and the Caribbean suggests that, while saving to survive the bad times is important, saving to thrive in the good times is what really counts. People must save to invest in health and education, live productive and fulfilling lives, and make the most of their retirement years. Firms must save to grow their enterprises, employ more workers in better jobs, and produce quality goods. Governments must save to build the infrastructure required by a productive economy, provide quality services to their citizens, and assure their senior citizens a dignified, worry-free retirement. In short, countries must save not for the proverbial rainy day, but for a sunny day - a time when everyone can bask in the benefits of growth, prosperity, and well-being. This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license.

Author: Ricardo Paes de Barros
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821377469
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Equality of opportunity is about leveling the playing field so that circumstances such as gender, ethnicity, place of birth, or family background do not influence a person s life chances. Success in life should depend on people s choices, effort and talents, not to their circumstances at birth. 'Measuring Inequality of Opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean' introduces new methods for measuring inequality of opportunities and makes an assessment of its evolution in Latin America over a decade. An innovative Human Opportunity Index and other parametric and non-parametric techniques are presented for quantifying inequality based on circumstances exogenous to individual efforts. These methods are applied to gauge inequality of opportunities in access to basic services for children, learning achievement for youth, and income and consumption for adults.

Author: David M. De Ferranti
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821351727
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
The fundamental elements to unlocking the potential of technology to speed up economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are investing in education, opening up new technologies through foreign trade and investment, and encouraging private sector research and development. 'Closing the Gap in Education and Technology' advises Latin American and Caribbean governments to address the region's deficits in skills and technology, and thereby boost productivity, ultimately improving growth prospects. To close this 'productivity gap' in the region, the report calls for a range of policy approaches and strategies, depending on a country's level of development. It identifies three progressive stages in a country's technological evolution -- adoption, adaptation, and creation -- and observes that policies should be designed to address the particular challenges that accompany each stage.In conclusion, 'Closing the Gap in Education and Technology' argues that many countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region have been improving education and social risk management systems so that they are now ready to benefit from the rewards associated with creating stronger trade and technology ties with countries that are more technologically advanced.

Author: Melissa Adelman
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464814635
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
How can countries make sustainable gains in student learning at scale? This is a pressing question for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)--and the developing world more broadly--as countries seek to build human capital to drive sustainable growth. Significant progress in access has expanded coverage such that nearly all children in the region attend primary school, but many do not gain basic skills and drop out before completing secondary school, in part due to low-quality service delivery. The preponderance of evidence shows that it is learning--and not schooling in and of itself--that contributes to individual earnings, economic growth, and reduced inequality. For LAC in particular, low levels of human capital are a critical factor in explaining the region’s relatively weak growth performance over the last half century. The easily measurable inputs are well-known, and the end goal is relatively clear, but raising student achievement at scale remains a challenge. Why? Part of the answer lies in management--the managers, structures, and practices that guide how inputs into the education system are translated into outputs, and ultimately outcomes. While management is often mentioned as an important factor in education policy discussions, relatively little quantitative research has been done to define and measure it. And even less has been done to unpack how and how much management matters for education quality. This study presents new conceptual and empirical contributions that can be synthesized in four key messages: 1. Student learning is unlikely to improve at scale without better management. 2. Management quality can be measured and should be measured as a catalyst for improvement. 3. Management affects how well every level of an education system functions, from individual schools to central technical units, and how well they work together. 4. Several pathways to strengthening management are open to LAC countries now, with the potential for significant results. The study elaborates on each of these messages, synthesizing recent data and research and presenting the results of several new research initiatives from across the region.

Author: Cláudio de Moura Castro
Publisher: IDB
ISBN: 9781886938601
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
"Myth, Reality, and Reform bridges these critiques by balancing the importance of the four key functions of higher education: academic leadership, professional development, technological training and development, and general higher education. The book suggests how to consolidate the strengths of higher education systems while fundamentally reforming their weaker features.

Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264313761
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
The Latin American Economic Outlook 2019: Development in Transition (LEO 2019) presents a fresh analytical approach in the region. It assesses four development traps relating to productivity, social vulnerability, institutions and the environment.