The study seeks to support the Philippine COVID‐19 response by quantifying the role of international migrant remittances in helping households cope with the pandemic’s economic consequences. Remittances are known to provide important support for migrant‐origin households experiencing negative shocks. Little is known about whether migrants who are themselves experiencing negative shocks are able to provide…
Remittances and Coping with COVID‐19
Gender Effects of COVID-19: Evidence from the Kenya Life Panel Survey
Governments in many countries are implementing social distancing measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, yet there is limited evidence about the effectiveness of these measures in low-income contexts. This is particularly true of travel restrictions/lockdowns; this, plus school closures, are likely to have major labor market implications, and potentially differential effects by gender. The…
What Can Online Vacancies Tell Us About Labor Market Conditions in Lower-Income Countries? Evidence from India
Over the last decade, the rapid diffusion of internet technologies in lower-income countries has changed how employers and workers interact in the labor market. While the initial boom in online recruitment focused on higher-wage occupations, there now exist online search and matching services for lower-wage occupations, from domestic work to entry-level retail jobs. Harnessing these…
Gender Differences in the Effects of the ‘Great Lockdown’on Time Use
This research will address whether and how the coronavirus pandemic exacerbates barriers to gender parity in developing countries by asymmetrically affecting time use for men and women. The effects of COVID-19 are likely to differ by gender (Alon et al., 2020), but the nature and extent of those differences are uncertain. The study, therefore, proposes…
Getting workers back to good matches: Wage Vouchers in the Wake of COVID-19
Prolonged production shutdowns due to COVID-19 are severing ties between employers and workers. In Myanmar’s garments sector, as of early April, tens of thousands of workers have already been laid off, with many more facing risks of job loss. Further, some firms appear to be acting opportunistically to fire union members. These types of manufacturing…
Migration, Changing Residence Patterns, and Covid-19in India
Informal insurance through family members and temporary migration are among the most important ways that individuals in low-income countries mitigate economic shocks. Covid-19makes these traditional means of informal insurance socially costly. Temporary or permanent migrants respond to the negative economic shock of the pandemic by returning home to co-reside with family members and risk spreading…
Meet Your Future: Job Search Effort and Aspirations of Young Jobseekers
The study is looking for add-on funding for descriptive data collection around COVID-19 using two samples from an existing ongoing project called “Meet You Future: Job Search Effort and Aspirations of Young Jobseekers”. The main study –jointly funded by a JPAL initiative and an IDRC grant -investigates the relevant barriers to quality employment that young…
Characterizing urban labor market effects of COVID and speeding recovery through a job search platform
The COVID-19 crisis has triggered unemployment worldwide. In developing countries, the effects are expected to be large (Mubarak and Howell 2020; Saleh and Cash 2020; Dingel and Neiman 2020); however, better data is needed to understand (1) who is most affected; (2) which job losses are expected to be temporary versus permanent, and (3) how…
The Impact of COVID19 Pandemic on the Small Firms in Developing Countries
COVID19 has paralysed the world over the last few months. To limit the spread of the disease, many countries adopted lockdown and social distancing measures. While these measures are seen as vital in containing the disease, they have also precipitated an unprecedented economic crisis. The crisis is hitting low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) harder on…
Working Together or Never: Women’s Labor Supply Externalities and the Unemployment Trap
When social networks generate redistributive pressures, labor supply decisions are undertaken in a social context. Individuals who optimize labor supply do so with the understanding that some of their earnings may be subject to taxation within the network; if they are capable of avoiding this tax by not working, then labor supply will be distorted…