Francisco Perez-Arce

The authors review recent trends in inequality in outcomes and opportunity and present evidence on their correlation across countries and within countries across time, then present a framework to understand the mechanisms underlying the relationship between inequalities in income and opportunity and discuss the potential effects of policies on opportunity and how these can be quantitatively assessed.

This report presents estimates of the gross regional product (GRP) of the Kurdistan Region Iraq in 2012 (excluding natural resources, because of lack of available data). It also describes efforts to set up a system for continuing data collection and analysis to support the annual calculation of the GRP, a critical indicator for successful policy planning."

This report provides a special focus on the challenges youth face in employment and education in Mongolia, using a new survey developed by the Institute for Labour Studies and RAND. Understanding the constraints to youth job-market success is critical to Mongolia s economic future. The analysis showed relatively high rates of youth not in school or work, and challenges to job-market preparation, but also improvement in job-market outcomes."

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq needs policy-relevant data to help improve infrastructure, encourage the private sector, attract foreign investment, and foster economic growth. The Kurdistan Region Statistics Office needs to build capacity to collect the data. RAND worked closely with the Office to build capacity by preparing, conducting, and analyzing the first round of a survey of the regional labor force.

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program is a residential program coupled with post-residential mentoring that seeks to alter the life course of high school dropouts ages 16-18. A cost-benefit analysis employing estimates of the program's effectiveness from a random assignment program evaluation indicates that every dollar invested in the ChalleNGe program yields $2.66 in social benefits, an estimated return on investment of 166 percent.