Entrepreneurship is the heartbeat of small business growth and innovation. Therefore, many initiatives attempt to improve entrepreneurs’ skill sets as a way of improving productivity in micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses, which would lead to faster growth. The IDB’s strategy is focused on increasing the relatively low productivity of Latin America and the Caribbean, … [Read more...] about Can soft-skills training improve business outcomes of microentrepreneurs?
Do Test Scores Determine School Quality?
Student performance on standardized tests is typically the main measure of school quality. Important decisions (such as school closures, the design of teacher performance pay schemes, and school accountability procedures) often rely on test-score metrics. These metrics may be simple test-score averages or more sophisticated measures of school effectiveness at improving test … [Read more...] about Do Test Scores Determine School Quality?
Understanding Financial Vulnerability and Promoting Resilience in Barbados during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on Barbadians and has highlighted important traits about financial vulnerability and resilience. The restrictions in movement across and within national borders in response to the public health crisis have struck a hard blow to economic activity in Barbados. Because Barbados’s economy is small and based on tourism, this has … [Read more...] about Understanding Financial Vulnerability and Promoting Resilience in Barbados during COVID-19
COVID-19, The Caribbean Crisis
COVID-19 is taking an unprecedented (albeit still unknown) toll on Caribbean region’s economic growth. According to the recently published Caribbean Quarterly Bulletin, the decline in the tourism industry will particularly affect The Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica. Plummeting international commodity prices are having severe consequences in Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and … [Read more...] about COVID-19, The Caribbean Crisis
Can Parents Recognize School Benefits Beyond Short-Run Academic Achievement?
Do you care what schools your children go to? You, I and most parents probably do, which is a bit of a paradox as there is very little evidence, i.e. scientific proof, that parental preferences for secondary schools are related to schools' causal impacts on school exit examinations. These preconceived notions of what are “the best schools” for your child can be explained by … [Read more...] about Can Parents Recognize School Benefits Beyond Short-Run Academic Achievement?