Economic inequalities in adolescents' internalising symptoms: longitudinal evidence from eight countries.

Background: Research, mainly conducted in Europe and North America, has shown an inequitable burden of internalising mental health problems among adolescents from poorer households. We investigated whether these mental health inequalities differ across a diverse range of countries and multiple measures of economic circumstances.

Methods: In this longitudinal observational cohort study, we analysed data from studies conducted in eight countries (Australia, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, the UK, and Viet Nam) across five global regions.

Do refugees with better mental health better integrate? Evidence from the Building a New Life in Australia longitudinal survey.

Hardly any evidence exists on the effects of mental distress on refugee labor outcomes. We offer the first study on this topic in the context of Australia, one of the host countries with the largest number of refugees per capita in the world. Analyzing the Building a New Life in Australia longitudinal survey, we exploit the variations in traumatic experiences of refugees interacted with post-resettlement time periods to causally identify the impacts of refugee mental health.

Is Climate Change Slowing the Urban Escalator Out of Poverty? Evidence from Chile, Colombia, and Indonesia.

While urbanization has great potential to facilitate poverty reduction, climate shocks represent a looming threat to such upward mobility. This paper empirically analyzes the effects of climatic risks on the function of urban agglomerations to support poor households' escape from poverty. Combining household surveys with climatic datasets, our analyses of Chile, Colombia, and Indonesia find that households in large metropolitan areas are more likely to escape from poverty, indicating better access to economic opportunities in those areas.

Statistical performance indicators and index-a new tool to measure country statistical capacity.

Strong statistical capacity is a prerequisite for producing reliable statistics that helps monitor a country's governance and economic performance. This is particularly relevant for a large number of poorer countries, which have weaker statistical capacity but have to rely more on these statistics for various objectives such as monitoring poverty reduction or reporting to international donors. We present the Statistical Performance Indicators and Index (SPI) as the World Bank's new official tool to measure country statistical capacity.

Did a successful fight against COVID-19 come at a cost? Impacts of the pandemic on employment outcomes in Vietnam.

Despite its low middle-income status, Vietnam has been widely praised for its success in the fight against early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a low mortality rate of approximately 100 deaths out of a population of less than 100 million by the end of 2020. We add to the emerging literature on COVID-19 effects on the labor market for poorer countries by analyzing rich individual-level data from Vietnam's Labor Force Surveys spanning 2015 to 2020. We find post-pandemic increases in unemployment and temporary layoff rates alongside decreases in employment quality.

Inequality and support for government responses to COVID-19.

Despite a deep literature studying the impact of inequality on policy outcomes, there has been limited effort to bring these insights into the debates about comparative support for government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We fill this gap by analyzing rich survey data at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020 from six countries spanning different income levels and geographical locations-China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We find that poorer individuals are less supportive of government responses.

Gender inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic: Income, expenditure, savings, and job loss.

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought unprecedented disruptions to the global economies and has led to income loss and high unemployment rates. But scant, if any, evidence exists on gender gaps in economic outcomes such as income, expenditure, savings, and job loss in a multi-country setting. We investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on gender inequality in these outcomes using data from a six-country survey that covers countries in different geographical locations and at various income levels.

Does the COVID-19 lockdown improve global air quality? New cross-national evidence on its unintended consequences.

Despite a growing literature on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, scant evidence currently exists on its impacts on air quality. We offer an early assessment with cross-national evidence on the causal impacts of COVID-19 on air pollution. We assemble a rich database consisting of daily, sub-national level data of air quality for 164 countries before and after the COVID-19 lockdowns and we analyze it using a Regression Discontinuity Design approach.

Varied patterns of catch-up in child growth: Evidence from Young Lives.

The development of human capabilities for many disadvantaged children around the world depends on growth recovery ('catch-up growth'). Here we develop a novel framework that allows different types of catch-up growth to be classified and estimated. We distinguish between catch-up in the mean of a group toward that of a healthy reference population versus catch-up within the group.

Well Begun, But Aiming Higher: A Review of Vietnam's Education Trends in the Past 20 Years and Emerging Challenges.

Given its modest position as a lower-middle income country, Vietnam stands out from the rest of the world with its remarkable performance on standardized test scores, school enrollment, and completed years of schooling. We provide an overview of the factors behind this exemplary performance both from an institutional viewpoint and by analyzing several different data sources, some of which have rarely been used. Some of the highlights are universal primary school enrollment, higher girls' net enrollment rates, and the role of within-commune individual factors.