Our newest publications
Social Connections and Skills Gap in Kenya
By Kefa Simiyu, Beatrice Mbinya, and Peter Karisa
This paper analyzed under-skilling across formal enterprises within Kenya’s services and manufacturing sectors. The objective was to analyze the effect of under-skilling across related enterprises on under-skilling among focal enterprises. This paper utilized the 2016 STEP survey dataset comprising of 504 enterprise-level observations. The technique of ordinary least squares estimation was employed alongside negative...
Where Do Women Work? Public Sector Employment, Gender, and Development
By Ahu Gemici, Juan Pablo Rud, Ija Trapeznikova, Pengzhan Qian , and Juan Sebastián Cifuentes Troncoso
We combine cross-country data from the Jobs of the World Database with harmonized household microdata from 18 Sub-Saharan African and 15 Latin American and Caribbean countries to document how men and women are allocated across self-employment, private wage employment, and public wage employment as economies develop. Globally, rising incomes are associated with a shift...
Initial Evidence on the Intergenerational Effects of the Ultra-Poor Graduation Program in Bangladesh
By Shaila Ahmed, Shyamal Chowdhury, Sheikh Touhidul Haque, Imran Matin, Munshi Sulaiman, Robin Burgess, and Marzuk A. N. Hossain
Previous studies based on a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) program in Bangladesh have shown that the model effectively reduces extreme poverty by providing resources and support for self-employment, enabling households to escape poverty traps and build long-term economic independence. In 2024, we conducted a follow-up survey to examine intergenerational...
Screening Women Out? Pay Transparency in Job Postings
By Amen Jalal
Up to half of the gender pay gap stems from women’s sorting into low-wage firms. Do women prefer amenities to wages, or face barriers to search? I tackle this question using data on 29 million job applications from Pakistan’s largest job search platform, combined with firm and worker surveys and a field experiment mandating...
Understanding the Effect of Women Education on Intimate Partner Violence Among Ever Married Women in The Gambia
By Isatou A. Badjie
Intimate partner violence is a significant problem affecting women globally. In The Gambia, despite legislation to prevent IPV, women still face an increasing rate of IPV. This paper examined the effect of women education on intimate partner violence among ever married women in The Gambia using the 2019-2020 Demographic and Health Survey dataset employing...
