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G²LM|LIC

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Latest News

The Kenya Life Panel Survey – COVID 19 Sample

March 23, 2021

The Kenya Life Panel Survey – COVID 19 Sample (KLPS) data visualization portal gives answers to queries relating to income, consumption, labor supply, food security, COVID-19 and mental health parameters. One can easily switch between viewing the entire sample characteristics, or navigate gender wise as well as between rural and urban sectors. This data visualization portal provides detailed measures of hours worked, child care responsibilities and the grim situation of unemployment and layoffs. Issues relating to mental health are vividly represented through graphs, making it easier to decipher the current mental health scenario of the sample as we track them, batch wise. This page is constantly updated to deliver the most recent results through visually appealing and extremely informative graphs.

The data is an outcome of the research project “Gender Effects of COVID-19: Evidence from the Kenya Life Panel Survey“. For more information about the research project, check the details here and read the policy brief here.

Batch wise data on income, KLPS.

Matching Frictions and Distorted Beliefs: Evidence from a Job Fair Experiment

March 10, 2021

Job fairs have been one of the most explored paths to gain entry into the labor market by young entrants. Frictions are likely to be more prevalent in a rapidly growing urban center in a low-income setting. Our new Working Paper No. 49 reports its findings from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. In this paper, we evaluate the impacts of a job fair intervention that decreases meeting costs between large firms and young job-seekers, randomizing fair attendance among workers and among firms. The fairs generate a rich set of interactions between workers and firms, but very few hires: one for every twelve firms that attended. On the other hand, the fairs motivate both firms and workers to invest more in job search, which leads to better employment outcomes for some job-seekers. Using data from a unique two-sided survey with a new sample of young workers and firms alongside data from the fairs, we show that these impacts are driven by the fact that both firms and workers have inaccurate beliefs about fundamental aspects of the labor market- in particular, the distribution of skills and the competitiveness of specific occupations, which are corrected at the job fairs. Overall, our evidence suggests that, beyond directly slowing down efficient matching in the labor market, search frictions can impose a second, understudied cost: they entrench inaccurate beliefs, further distorting search strategies and the allocation of talent.

G2LM|LIC Working Paper No. 49-Matching Frictions and Distorted Beliefs: Evidence from a Job Fair Experiment.

Thank you to all the mentors!

February 16, 2021

The special mentoring sessions of the IZA/FCDO Online Short Course on Research Skills for Sub-Saharan Africa received an overwhelming response! Out of 208 applicants, 40 researchers based in Sub-Saharan Africa were matched with mentors who are experienced researchers in their own field. We are happy with the extremely positive feedback: 95% of the mentees wish to have another opportunity like this and would apply again, and 85% of the mentors and mentees decided to stay connected beyond this programme. We sincerely acknowledge the efforts of our mentors, 100% of them remarked that they would love to engage in such interactions again. On behalf of the mentees, we thank the mentors who devoted their time to making this programme a resounding success:

  • Sofia Amaral (ifo Institute, Munich)
  • Elizabeth Asiedu (University of Kansas)
  • Vittorio Bassi (University of Southern California)
  • Natalie Bau (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Laura Boudreau (Columbia University)
  • Peter Brummund (University of Alabama and IZA)
  • Gharad Bryan (London School of Economics)
  • Stefano Caria (University of Warwick)
  • Tanika Chakraborty (Indian Institute of Management and IZA)
  • Bruno Crépon (CREST and IZA)
  • Taryn Dinkelman (University of Notre Dame and IZA)
  • Damir Esenaliev (International Security and Development Center and IGZ)
  • Paolo Falco (University of Copenhagen)
  • Nathan Fiala (University of Connecticut)
  • Gary S. Fields (Cornell University and IZA)
  • Günther Fink (University of Basel)
  • Simon Franklin (Queen Mary University of London)
  • Emanuela Galasso (World Bank)
  • Rob Garlick (Duke University)
  • Selim Gulesci (Trinity College, Dublin)
  • Rachel Heath (University of Washington)
  • Eric Hsu (University of California, Berkeley)
  • Asad Islam (Monash University)
  • Kelsey Jack (University of California, Santa Barbara)
  • Pamela Jakiela (Williams College and IZA)
  • Abou Kane (University Cheikh Anta Diop)
  • Caroline Krafft (St. Catherine University)
  • Rocco Macchiavello (London School of Economics)
  • Amalia Miller (University of Virginia and IZA)
  • Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University and IZA)
  • Paul Novosad (Dartmouth College)
  • Owen Ozier (Williams College and IZA)
  • Todd Pugatch (Oregon State University and IZA)
  • Simon Quinn (University of Oxford)
  • Jacob Shapiro (Princeton University)
  • Susan Steiner (Leibniz University Hannover and IZA)
  • Tavneet Suri (MIT)
The mentees’ description of the IZA/FCDO mentorship experience

A small selection of our Projects

  • Is Heading Home a Dead End? COVID-Induced Migration and Local Labor Market Opportunities in Rural India

    Is Heading Home a Dead End? COVID-Induced Migration and Local Labor Market Opportunities in Rural India
  • Assessing the Impact of the Shock on the Most Vulnerable

    Assessing the Impact of the Shock on the Most Vulnerable
  • The Effects of Employer Responses to COVID-19 on Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh

    The Effects of Employer Responses to COVID-19 on Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh
  • Leveraging “Big Data” to Improve Labor Market Outcomes

    Leveraging “Big Data” to Improve Labor Market Outcomes
  • Tracking the Value of Time of Informal Sector Workers during and Post-Curfew in Nairobi, Kenya

    Tracking the Value of Time of Informal Sector Workers during and Post-Curfew in Nairobi, Kenya

Our newest publications

Economic Impacts of Coronavirus-19 on Female Workers in Bangladesh‘s Garment Sector

Export manufacturing in low income countries has been devastated by COVID-19. Female workers are likely to be particularly affected, given that they may be in more precarious positions within and lack information about their legal rights and eligibility for the government stimulus and other relief programs. This proposal develops and implements a mobile-phone based survey of garment workers in Bangladesh, to provide insights about COVID-19 responses in their workplace and the effects on workers by gender. We recruit the sample by beginning with two samples of garment workers employed in past research by the PI’s and BIGD and ask for referrals from these workers, employing statistical techniques to reweigh the sample to achieve representativeness. We find that, while garment sector workers experience layoffs, garment work appears to be superior to alternatives, at least during a pandemic. Employers’ adoption of COVID-19 prevention practices is negatively correlated with workers’ experience of COVID-19, even controlling for workers’ personal characteristics.

When the Great Equalizer Closes

To curb the spread of COVID-19, Uganda implemented one of Africa’s strictest lockdowns. With all educational institutions entirely shut down for seven months, students, and in particular, those attending boarding schools, found their daily lives in total disarray. In this policy brief, we use data from a phone survey with 811 students enrolled in the National Certificate Course at five Vocational Training Institutes (VTIs) across central and eastern Uganda. 60% of the students in the sample are male, and the average student is 20 years old. In 2020 school closures impacted around 250 million students in Sub-Saharan Africa (UNICEF 2021). Our survey was conducted in June 2020, three months into the Ugandan school closure, to contribute evidence toward understanding how the pandemic affected students’ learning environments, mental health and time use in the very short run. This study is a spin-off of the Meet Your Future Project, an ongoing RCT designed to investigate the relative importance of several barriers to quality employment that students face when transitioning from the educational sector into labor markets characterized by high levels of informality. Evidence on medium and long run effects of the school closure will be available in the near future.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Poor Households in Egypt: Preliminary Results from the Pilot

Despite rising educational attainment, female labor force participation (FLFP) has declined in Egypt; in 2018, only 17% of women were employed (Krafft, Assaad, and Keo 2019). There are three main explanations as to why FLFP globally and in Egypt remains low: women’s high opportunity cost of time (determined by childcare responsibilities), weak labor demand and restrictive gender norms. The Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in collaboration with IZA will evaluate the impact of access to nurseries on FLFP using a randomized control trial. The evaluation was designed to investigate whether the cost of childcare discourages female employment and how this interacts with two other potential barriers to female employment: limited access to jobs and restrictive gender norms. Women with young children are doubly challenged by the pandemic. Disproportionately responsible for caregiving, yet faced with the loss of child care options in light of the pandemic and lockdowns, they will face particular difficulties in retaining or gaining work and may face increased stress and pressures within the household. Our plan is to ask a number of questions on the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to assess the gendered impact of the pandemic on households as well as policy responses.

Gender Effects of COVID-19: Evidence from the Kenya Life Panel Survey

The Kenya Life Panel Survey (KLPS) is a 20+ years longitudinal survey on health, educational, nutritional, demographic, social, and labor market outcomes among a sample of thousands of Kenyans who were participants in one or more randomized health, skills training, and financial capital interventions during childhood and adolescence. Respondents attended primary school in Western Kenya; many have since moved (and been tracked) around the country, and now reside in both rural and urban areas. We conducted phone surveys with KLPS respondents from April to September 2020 in order to understand their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. These surveys measured labor market activity, childcare hours, food security, migration, the home learning environment (including parent-child reading), knowledge of COVID-19 and social distancing adherence. Schools in Kenya were closed for most of 2020, highlighting the importance of understanding female labor market outcomes and home learning. Phone surveys were conducted in representative batches, allowing us to trace out trends over time.

Matching Frictions and Distorted Beliefs: Evidence from a Job Fair Experiment

We evaluate the impacts of a job fair intervention that decreases meeting costs between large firms and young jobseekers, randomizing fair attendance among workers and among firms. The fairs generate a rich set of interactions between workers and firms, but very few hires: one for every twelve firms that attended. On the other hand, the fairs motivate both firms and workers to invest more in job search, which leads to better employment outcomes for some jobseekers. Using data from a unique two-sided survey with a new sample of young workers and firms alongside data from the fairs, we show that these impacts are driven by the fact that both firms and workers have inaccurate beliefs about fundamental aspects of the labor market – in particular, the distribution of skills and the competitiveness of specific occupations – which are corrected at the job fairs. Overall, our evidence suggests that, beyond directly slowing down efficient matching in the labour market, search frictions can impose a second, understudied cost: they entrench inaccurate beliefs, further distorting search strategies and the allocation of talent.

See all publications

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News from our Twitter Account

  • Covid-19 induced school closure exacerbates pre-existing poverty & #gender gaps in access to quality education & jo… https://t.co/6WQCmnKJK2 April 13, 2021 5:48 pm
  • A recent pilot study in Egypt shows that cost of childcare, limited access to jobs and restrictive #gender norms di… https://t.co/xqMEbrKtJd April 7, 2021 5:44 pm
  • The Kenya Life Panel Survey: COVID19 portal visualizes #Labor market outcomes, #gender, #foodsecurity, COVID19 and… https://t.co/4tJFLYN6bX March 26, 2021 6:21 pm
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Established in 1998 in Bonn, Germany, IZA is an independent, non-profit research institution supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation with a focus on the analysis of global labour markets. It operates an international network of about 1,500 economists and researchers spanning across more than 50 countries.

Based on academic excellence and an ambitious publication strategy, IZA serves as a place of communication between academic science and political practice.

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