Advancing Gender Equality and Labor Markets in Low-Income Countries

Transit stations increase firm entry, shift local firm composition toward larger consumer-facing businesses, and raise female employment

By Akhila Kovvuri and Karmini Sharma

We tend to think of transit as moving people to jobs. But what if it also moved jobs to people? India has among the lowest female labour force participation rates in the world, around 10% in Delhi in the early 2000s and 20% nationally. This research asks whether the Delhi Metro raised female employment...

By Belinda Archibong, Francis Annan, Oyebola Okunogbe, Ifeatu Oliobi, and Glory Aiyegbeni

Online labor markets have proliferated globally raising hopes that easier, less costly access to information and communication technology (ICT) and greater information transparency could reduce gender inequality in employment. Yet gender gaps in job applications and hiring persist even on digital platforms. This project investigates whether information frictions — misinformed beliefs among applicants and...

The Case of Free Compulsory Basic Education in Ghana

By Nicola Branson and Emma Whitelaw

This paper examines whether Ghana’s education reforms have increased intergenerational education mobility. Using the newly constructed Ghana Education and Labour Series—a harmonized dataset combining multiple rounds of the Ghana Living Standards Survey—we track intergenerational education mobility trends for cohorts born between 1958 and 1992. Utilizing bottom-half mobility, a measure of the expected educational rank...

A Natural Field Experiment in a Tax Amnesty Context

By Gayline Vuluku, Erich Kirchler, and Christian Bauer

This study evaluates the impact of behavioural interventions on the uptake and payment of tax arrears through an amnesty program in Kenya. Using a randomised controlled trial, 43,666 tax delinquents from Nairobi region were evaluated. Taxpayers were assigned to receive either a neutral informational email, one of three behavioural messages on deterrence, social norms,...

Durable Impacts that Extend Across Generations

By Erica Field, Rachel Glennerster, Nina Caroline Buchmann, and Sakib Mahmood

Child marriage remains pervasive in Bangladesh and many low-income settings, undermining girls’ education, reducing their economic participation, and constraining opportunities for their children. Policymakers have invested heavily in empowerment programs and incentives to delay marriage, yet little is known about whether these interventions generate lasting economic gains. This project answers that question through a...