For Policy Makers
This is a dedicated space designed to provide policymakers with the latest insights and evidence-based research on growth, gender, and labor markets in low-income countries. Here, you will find our comprehensive Policy Brief series, Synthesis Paper series, and other relevant publications that distill complex research findings into actionable insights for policy development. Additionally, this section features information on key events that can support your policy-making process. Our goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools needed to drive impactful and sustainable economic development.
Publications
Returns to Productive Assets for Workers: Evidence from a Mobility Experiment in an Indian Firm
By Shreya Sarkar
Read moreThe Long-Term Impact of Antidepressant Pharmacotherapy in India
By Daniel Bennett and Manuela Angelucci
Read moreUrban Density and Labour Markets: Evaluating Slum Redevelopment in Addis Ababa
By Gharad Bryan, Simon Franklin, and Girum Abebe
Read moreExperiments on Social Media
A guide on designing and targeting interventions using LinkedIn Ads
By Anaya Dam and Diego Dabed Sitnisky
Read moreEvidence Finder
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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;...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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)...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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)...
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...
