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Economic Development and the Organisation of Labour: Evidence from the Jobs of the World Project

Labour is the sole endowment of the poor and the main factor of production in all economies. Therefore, understanding whether labour is employed efficiently is key to understanding poverty at the micro level and differences in national income at the macro level. In this working paper, the authors use the Jobs of the World database to discuss evidence to show how the nature of jobs and their allocation vary within countries by wealth and gender and across countries in stages of development.

The key contribution of the paper lies in documenting broad transformations in the organisation of labour- that is the nature of jobs and their allocation. Authors outline the transformation in three stages: 1) Marketisation of work; 2) Replacement of self-employed work by wage work; 3) Increasing variety of available occupations. This alludes to the fact that the nature of jobs changes over the course of development from subsistence work to self-employed work to increasingly specialised wage work, but wealth and gender shape the allocation of these changing jobs in the same way throughout. Furthermore, the emergence of more specialised occupations coincides with occupational segregation of the labour force by gender which results in misallocation of talent. This is clear evidence that social norms play a crucial role in organisation of labour. Participation in market work varies enormously even within countries with very similar levels of income. For example, the interquartile range of the share of women who hold paid jobs is around 20 percentage points within every decile of GDP. The dispersion is highest in the lowest decile of GDP at 25 percentage points and only 10 percentage points in the highest decile. To study the role of norms the authors present a systematic meta-analysis on active labour market intervention for female labour market participation. Read the detailed Working Paper here.

The (Very) Long-Run Impacts of Cash Grants during a Crisis

It is repeatedly argued that the potential effects of giving cash grants to poor people are constrained by the fact that this income group is trapped in poverty, generating little permanent income effect. However, the literature points to mixed results, not only within short- and longer-term evaluations, but also between them. Therefore, the timing of a long-term study and the potential heterogeneity, specifically by gender, may play an important role in the effects of cash grants.

Motivated by the above, this working paper’s researchers set themselves to experimentally assess the long-run impacts of a randomized cash grant in Uganda on three pre-specified outcomes (after 4, 9, and 12 years), including a heterogeneity analysis by gender. By randomly assigning beneficiaries of the Ugandan YOP (Young Opportunities Program) to their treatment and control groups, the investigators find that although the positive income effects recognized after 4 years had vanished after 9 years, they were again found to be positive in this study during the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, considerably stronger positive effects on men should be highlighted, even though these income effects do not translate into higher food security. Read the detailed Working Paper here.

Childcare, Labor Supply, and Business Development: Evidence from Uganda

It is almost common knowledge that access to childcare is and has been fundamental for increasing women’s labor force participation in High-Income countries. However, it is not fully clear if the lessons drawn from such countries can be applied to contexts in low-income ones. Since in such settings evidence of the effects of childcare on women’s labor market outcomes is scarce and that of the effects it has on child development mixed, there is a research gap that needs to be filled.

Motivated by this, researchers of this Working Paper set themselves to experimentally assess this research question in Uganda. Their research design is not only intended to analyse the effect of childcare on to the labor market outcomes of women, but also on the ones of husbands and that of the household in general. Researchers therefore selected Women that had children between the age of 3 and 5 at the time of the experiment and either gave a cash grant, a childcare subsidy or nothing. Consequently and with this setting, investigators find that childcare leads to a 44 per cent increase in household income and that the childcare subsidy improves child development while the cash grant does not. Read the detailed Working Paper here.

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Addressing seasonal hunger and rural poverty in Zambia – Testing scalable solutions

Since farmers harvest crops (and therefore earn income) just a few times a year, many agricultural households struggle to save their cash and maintain their consumption in the months between harvests. For this reason, the period before harvest is often termed the “hungry season”. Previous research has shown that offering well-timed, seasonal credit to farmers can help boost agricultural productivity and smooth consumption, but few programs designed to provide seasonal credit to small-scale farmers exist in low-income settings. We work with a private sector partner to test a scale up of seasonal loans. The program increased farmer engagement with the company and had high take up, but led to high levels of default, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to its discontinuation.

Economic Development and the Organisation of Labour: Evidence from the Jobs of the World Project

The Jobs of the World Project is a public resource designed to enable research on jobs and poverty across and within countries over the entire development spectrum. At its core is a new data set assembled by harmonising Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and National Censuses (IPUMS) for all countries and all years after 1990 where data is available. The current version covers 115 countries, observed 4 times on average. We use the data to show how the nature of jobs and their allocation vary within countries by wealth and gender and across countries by stages of development. We discuss evidence that shows how disparities at the micro level lead to a misuse of human potential that links individual poverty to national income.

The (Very) Long-Run Impacts of Cash Grants during a Crisis

The economic consequences of COVID-19 lockdowns were significant for poor households in the Global South. In this crisis period, we investigate the very long-run impacts of a randomized cash grant in Uganda on three pre-specified outcomes, including a heterogeneity analysis by gender. In 2008, the program supported young adults through a one-time grant of 380 USD, labelled to invest in vocational training and tools to start a business. The program revealed considerable effects after four years, which vanished after nine years. We now find, 12 years after the intervention, during the COVID-19 pandemic, positive effects on income for the full sample, which are entirely driven by men. Treated men are also significantly more likely to be engaged in an income generating activity, though this does not translate into higher food security. We find no effects for women. Our findings of re-surfacing positive effects are important for the growing literature on long-run impacts of programming as we show that the timing of a follow-up matters. The presence of economic shocks should especially be taken into account when planning long-run follow-ups.

Childcare, Labor Supply, and Business Development: Experimental Evidence from Uganda

In a field experiment in Uganda, mothers of young children are randomly offered a childcare subsidy, an equivalent cash grant, both or nothing. Childcare leads to a 44 percent increase in household income, which is at least as large as the impact of the cash grant and driven by an increase in mothers’ business revenues and fathers’ wage earnings. The childcare subsidy also improves child development while the cash grant does not. Overall, our findings demonstrate that childcare subsidies can be an effective policy to simultaneously promote child development and reduce poverty in a low-income context.

Intergenerational Mobility in India: New Methods and Estimates across Time, Space and Communities

We study intergenerational mobility in India over time, across groups, and across space. We show that the modern set of rank-based mobility measures can be at best partially identified with education data. We develop a new measure of upward mobility that works well under data constraints common in developing countries. We find that intergenerational mobility in India has been constant and low since before liberalization. Among boys, rising mobility for Scheduled Castes is almost exactly offset by declining mobility among Muslims, a comparably sized group with few constitutional protections. Mobility among girls is lower, with less crossgroup variation over time. Mobility is highest in places that are southern, urban, and have high average education levels. A natural experiment suggests that affirmative action for Scheduled Castes has substantially improved their mobility. Our measures are relevant for the study of mobility in poorer countries and in historical contexts.

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