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In a new paper, we examine the connection between exposure to lead—a dangerous but prevalent neurotoxicant—and children’s learning outcomes. We find that lead poisoning alone could account for more than 20 percent of the learning gap between rich and poor countries. Given the comparative ease of, say, banning lead paint compared to comprehensive education reform, policymakers interested in improving children’s learning outcomes may want to consider lead exposure as fairly low-hanging fruit.

Learning recovery plan for countries in Europe and Central Asia

School disruptions due to war, pandemics, or natural disasters can have persistent negative effects on learning outcomes. This column estimates the learning losses due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. From a position of relative parity with its neighbours pre-pandemic, learning outcomes in Ukraine are now estimated to be below the lowest-performing countries in Europe.

Richard Baldwin, Rikard Forslid For decades, human capital research has relied on measures of schooling (Mincer 1984, Mankiw et al. 1992). But proxying human capital with schooling assumes that being in school translates into learning. Evidence suggests that this is often not the case (Pritchett 2013). Recent analysis reveals that six out of ten adolescents worldwide cannot meet basic proficiency levels in maths and reading (UNESCO 2017). This gap between schooling and learning is particularly acute in developing countries. In Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda three quarters of grade 3 students can...