Emergence and Evolution of Learning Gaps Across Countries: Panel evidence from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam

The author uses a Young Lives dataset, collected between 2002 and 2009, to investigate a series of questions relating to learning assessments in education, the age at which development gaps appear between countries, and how these gaps and differences can be explained away by other factors.

The Young Lives dataset looks at four developing countries: Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. Using statistical analysis, the author is able to draw certain conclusions. For one, ranking countries by national income (GNI) per capita and by learning outcomes do not necessarily provide the same results: while the Vietnamese GNI per capita is at a similar level as India, and only about a third of Peru, learning outcomes in Vietnam are consistently better than both countries.