education

Around the world, governments are under pressure to improve learning outcomes. There is now an unprecedented wealth of research, yet this rarely reaches the people making decisions. The sector needs to shift from producing evidence for governments to generating it with them. True progress lies not only in discovering what works, but in building systems that learn, adapt, and implement at scale.

Educated unemployment in urban West Africa stems from educated workers rationally waiting for scarce, high-paying public and formal private jobs in labour markets characterised by severe hiring frictions. Policies that reduce private-sector hiring co...

In Brazil, education raised productivity and reduced informality, while minimum wage increases compressed inequality but risked lowering formal employment for low-skilled workers.

How can teaching students socio-emotional skills – such as empathy, trust, and self-control – reduce violence, improve learning, and ultimately foster more cohesive societies?

Higher education played a key role in Southeast Asia’s long-run development – much earlier than most policy accounts and research suggest.

What role can impact investors play in the global education sector? Which investments in private schools are effective? What criteria should investors use when deciding which schools to support?

The witches’ broom disease in Brazil decimated cocoa plantations, resulting in disrupted livelihoods, altered labour contracts, and reduced educational and earnings outcomes in the long term.

While access to schooling has improved globally, learning outcomes remain shockingly poor—particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. How can foundational learning help bridge this gap?

Promoting sustained effortful mental activity in Indian primary schools markedly improved student cognitive and educational outcomes across a wide range of subjects.