Measuring the Long-Term Impact of Reducing Childhood Poverty

Evidence from Ultra-Poor Graduation Program

Children who grow up in poverty are more likely to experience poverty in their adult lives, manifesting intergenerational poverty traps. Studies with long-term panel data show that the poverty status of households in their childhood is associated...

• RCT
• Youth

• Bangladesh

Female Entrepreneurship and Professional Networks

Despite being the only region in the world where there are more female entrepreneurs than men, the vast majority of female-owned businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa are microenterprises and women’s businesses earn 34% lower profits than...

• Gender
• Labour Markets
• RCT

• Ghana

Digitising Historical Plant Level Panel Data on Labour Outcomes

This project seeks to digitise historical plant–level data on labour outcomes from India. In addition to monthly, plant–level data on various labour outcomes, these data contain unique plant identifiers, which can be combined with...

• Gender
• Labour Markets

• India

Ticket to Thrive: Effect of Safe Public Transportation on Mobility and Employment of Women in Urban India

In India, only 20% of women participate in the labour force—less than in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia—hampering national economic growth and women’s financial independence. This project investigates how safe public transportation,...

• Employment
• Gender
• Labour Markets

• India

Commuting Constraints and Labor Productivity: A Field Experiment on Women’s Mobility in India

Can alleviating commuting constraints enhance the labor supply and labor productivity of women from low-income households? This project studies this question in collaboration with the largest gig-firm in India, engaging 40,000 gig-workers, including...

• Gender
• RCT

• India

Peripartum Timing, Agricultural Productivity, Food Security, and Child Health in Africa

The majority of the population in LICs depend on rain–fed agriculture for livelihoods, which means the timing of most activities is dependent on the rainfall calendar and pattern. This has obvious implications on the timing of other events...

• Agriculture
• Gender

• Sub-Saharan Africa

Female Wage Labour and Fertility

Evidence from the Cut-Flower Industry in Kenya

While growth has taken off in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in recent decades, the structural transformation of its economies is still lagging far behind that observed in other previously low-and-middle-income regions across the world. At the same time,...

• Gender

• Kenya

Paternalistic Discrimination

Women in South Asia are often excluded from the labour market, reducing their financial autonomy, and negatively impacting their physical and mental wellbeing (Verick, 2014; Field et al., 2021). Large government interventions have failed to close...

• Gender
• RCT

• Bangladesh

Together to Work? Role of Travel Buddies on Women’s Employment and Mobility

The labour market participation rate for women in India is significantly low, with only 25 women for every 100 men being engaged in the workforce. This striking disparity is far below the global average of 66.7 women for every 100 men. Existing data...

• Gender
• RCT

• India

Education and Labour Market Dynamics in a Period of Rapid Education Expansion:

Building Evidence from Existing Ghanaian Survey Data Sources

Recognizing the need for policies that address poverty and inequality and build social cohesion, the Ghanaian government rolled out free compulsory primary education in 1996 and free senior high school provision in 2017. With the first cohorts...

• Employment
• Gender
• Labour Markets
• Youth

• Ghana

Market-Based Solutions to Gender Inequality in Job Search in Pakistan

Our research agenda addresses questions central to the economics of gender: To what extent are gender gaps in labour markets driven by labour demand versus supply? Given weak capacity in developing countries to enforce legislation, can market-based...

• Employment
• Job Search
• Labour Markets

• Pakistan

From Jobs to Careers

Lifting Constraints to Women’s Career Advancement in South Asia

Women’s participation in the labour market increases economic growth at both the national and firm level, yet women worldwide still face significant labour market challenges. Current research on women’s labour market experience in developing...

• Gender
• Labour Markets
• RCT

• Bangladesh
• India
• Pakistan

Improving Childcare Quality through Social Franchising

Access to high-quality childcare is central to advancing women’s economic and social agency while promoting children’s development. However, in many LMICs, childcare markets are largely informal, with care often provided in unregulated...

• Firms
• Gender
• RCT

• Kenya

Women in Firms

Experimental Evidence from Indian Firms

Female labour force participation in developing countries like India is low and has been falling (Klasen and Pieters 2015; Fletcher et al. 2017). Safer workplaces may encourage more women to apply for work (Sudarshan and Bhattacharya 2009;...

• Labour Markets

• India

Occupational Segregation and Gender Gaps in Nairobi

Disentangling Supply from Demand and Preferences from Beliefs using Worker and Employer Surveys

We study the interlinked role of beliefs, preferences, and search by workers and firms in driving occupational segregation and wage inequality for women in Nairobi, Kenya. Our project address four questions within this agenda: (1) (How) do employers...

• Gender

• Kenya

Long–Run Social Norms and Female Labour Force Participation in India

India’s gender inequality and low female labour force participation rate (FLFP) are in stark contrast to its position as the fifth-largest economy in the world. Fewer than 25% of women work outside the home, and historical patriarchal norms...

• Gender
• Labour Markets

• India

Women’s Employment and Family Decisions in Sub-Saharan Africa

A Structural Approach

Our project studies the role of the public sector and the opportunities it can provide for women’s employment and the gender pay gap in low-income countries (LICs). Using the preliminary evidence from microdata for a number of SSA countries, we...

• Gender

• Burkina Faso
• Cameroon
• Ethiopia
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Malawi
• Mali
• Niger
• Nigeria
• South Africa
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zambia

LinkinOut Harassment

A Targeted Social Media Experiment to Reduce Workplace Harassment towards Women

The issue of sexual harassment in the workplace remains pervasive, despite being illegal and a violation of human rights. Approximately one in two women experience sexual harassment during their work lives, with half of them experiencing three or...

• Gender
• RCT

• India

Studying the Latent Demand for Female Labour in Rural India

In lower-middle-income countries, it is estimated that 35.5% of women over 15 participated in the labour force in 2018. Despite India’s rapid economic growth and increasing educational attainment, female labour force participation (FLFP)...

• Gender
• Labour Markets
• RCT

• India

Depression Treatment and Female Performance in the Labour and Marriage Markets in India

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, with a lifetime prevalence of 15-20% and a higher prevalence among the poor. Depression symptoms include anhedonia, impaired attention, and fatigue. People with depression and their families...

• Gender
• Migration
• RCT

• India

Leveraging Community-Based Childcare to Address Gender Gaps in Labour Market and Educational Outcomes Across Multiple Generations in Ethiopia

The project, to be conducted jointly by the Centre for Global Development (CGD) and Policy Studies Institute (PSI), aims to answer the following questions by evaluating a randomized trial of community-based childcare and early learning facilities as...

• Gender
• RCT

• Ethiopia

Information Frictions and Gender Inequality in Online Labour Markets

Information asymmetry on the part of job seekers or applicants and employers may lead to skills mismatches that increase gender inequality in labour markets. Can online labour markets close gender gaps in employment by smoothing information...

• Gender
• Job Search
• Labour Markets
• RCT

• Nigeria

Long-Run Impacts of Factory Jobs: Labour Market Outcomes, Wellbeing, and Fertility in Ethiopia

In recent years, Ethiopia has become a hub for textile and garment manufacturing. These factories provide employment opportunities in low-skilled jobs, drawing many young women into the formal labour force. Although the factories create formal jobs...

• Gender
• RCT

• Ethiopia

Long-Term Labour Market Impacts of Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment Interventions in Bangladesh

In this study, we conduct a long-term follow-up of an empowerment programme (which raised labour force participation prior to marriage) and an anti-child marriage programme. We (a) investigate how exogenously changing adolescent girls’ (i)...

• Gender
• RCT

• Bangladesh

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

On March 24 2020, the Indian government announced a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19. Implemented with just four hours’ notice, the lockdown forced millions of suddenly out-of-work migrants to return to their villages –often...

• Gender
• Information
• Internal Migration
• Labour Markets
• Rural

• India