G²LM|LIC

In recent years, policy changes have enabled women to enter the workforce in increasing numbers. Despite this, global female labor force participation remains low at 49%, 27 percentage points lower than the rate for men. However, even women that do manage to work get paid lower than men working in similar jobs; with women paid approximately 20% less than men globally . In this policy brief, we use data from a job search platform in Pakistan, to examine patterns of gender wage disparity, and explore the reasons influencing these patterns. This platform, called Job Talash, was created by researchers at the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan, and generates data for over 10,000 jobseekers and 1,200 firms in Lahore. Using Job Talash, we are conducting a series of experimental research studies on labor market frictions in urban Pakistan; unlike other studies using labor force surveys, this data helps us observe each step of the job search process, from the jobseeker and employer side. This helps shed light on the various supply and demand side factors affecting labor market outcomes.

In almost all countries around the world, women and girls spend more time on domestic work and childcare than do men and boys. The situation is worse in developing countres like Ghana. A consequence of these increased domestic care burdens is that women have limited opportunities to engage in paid work and earn incomes, a situation which can limit their bargaining and decision-making power within the household. Furthermore, when women are fully engaged in the business of domestic and care work, they also experience reduced opportunities for training and educational pursuits. Besides, heavy domestic and childcare burdens can put women’s health at risk. Linked to this is also the increasing incidence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Ghana with noted deleterious effects on women’s physical and mental welfare. In this paper, we explore whether women’s earnings improve their bargaining position and reduce their domestic and childcare burdens, as well as their experience of physical and/or emotional violence.

In Ghana, women, on average, spend more than three times the average time men spend on domestic work and child chare activities. Such a burden created from unequal housework may have implications on women’s socio-economic empowerment, particularly, on their labour market and reproductive health outcomes.
In a setting characterised by unequal distribution of domestic work and stalled fertility rates, it is important to examine the tensions between family life and paid work on women’s labour market outcomes as well as on their fertility decisions.
Using qualitative data the study explores the effect of unequal distribution of housework on women’s labour market outcomes and examines the role that earnings differentials among couples play in the fertility choices of such couples who are married or in a consensual union.

There is increasing evidence in economics that better management and improved business practices matter for productivity in both large and small firms. However, evaluations of traditional business training programs offered to existing small firms have found limited impacts on business profits, particularly for women. A set of issues can play a role: while business training programs change knowledge, they may not lead to a large enough change in business practices to affect outcomes; or perhaps these programs are not teaching the right skills.
One approach to respond to the skills hypothesis has been to incorporate insights from other fields like behavioral economics and psychology. These approaches may replace the need for traditional business training or complement at the margin their effects.
In Togo, we tested the importance of alternative skills by comparing two types of training: traditional managerial training using IFC Business Edge, and a psychology-based personal initiative training pro-gram. The personal initiative had very large effects on innovation and capital investment, but also on business practices learnt in traditional programs, including record keeping and HR management. The evaluation showed that entrepreneurs who took the personal initiative training saw their profits rise by an average of 30% relative to the control group (40% for female entrepreneurs), compared with a statistically insignificant 11% effect for traditional training (5% for female entrepreneurs). The training is cost-effective, paying for itself within one year.