The G²LM|LIC initiative provides a comprehensive and ever-expanding collection of research findings on “Gender, Growth and Labour in Low Income Countries.” Explore our evidence base by selecting your thematic area or country of interest to discover insights tailored to your needs.
For those seeking a more granular or targeted search, we invite you to use our Evidence Finder, available on the "For Policy Makers" page.
Our global evidence map offers a quick check for which countries G²LM|LIC empirical evidence and policy advice is available. This map reflects an up-to-date status quo of all country projects within the G²LM|LIC initiative. Click on your country of interest to view all related G²LM|LIC data.
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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;...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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 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...
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...
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)...
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...
The COVID-19 pandemic poses a particular challenge for low-income and fragile countries, as well as vulnerable groups, particularly women. Our Sudan Labor Market Panel Survey (SLMPS) 2020 project, with planned data collection starting in...
Export manufacturing in low-income countries has been devastated by COVID-19. For instance, 46% of garment factories in Bangladesh report that “a lot” to “most” of their orders have been cancelled (Anner 2020), leading to mass...
Rapidly expanding Internet access has dramatically changed job seeking across the developing world. This surge in access has occurred alongside a private sector-led expansion of online job portals providing search and matching services Despite these...
Covid-19 is already having widespread consequences in Nairobi, Kenya including the loss of earnings and starvation. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is considerable heterogeneity. For example, vendors who can still sell essential goods have...
The number of COVID-19 cases in Africa is exponentially increasing and WHO experts fear not only many fatalities but also devastating social and economic consequences. African governments have responded to the pandemic by strict shutdowns of public...
Women with young children are doubly challenged by the pandemic. Disproportionately responsible for caregiving, yet faced with the loss of child care options in light of the pandemic and lockdowns, they will face particular difficulties in...
Microenterprises are an important source of employment, and developing such enterprises is a key policy concern in most countries, especially in low-income countries where they employ more than half of the labor force. While there is optimism about...
Access to quality inputs is critical to boosting agricultural productivity. However, quantitative research (Tjernström et al 2017; Bold et al 2017; Ashour et al 2019) and news reports (Muchiri 2019; Okinda 2019) find that the quality of...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Informal insurance through family members and temporary migration are among the most important ways that individuals in low-income countries mitigate economic shocks. Covid-19 makes these traditional means of informal insurance socially costly....
The Meet You Future Project (MYF) is an ongoing RCT designed in partnership with BRAC Uganda to investigate the relative importance of several barriers to quality employment that students face when transitioning from the educational sector into...
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...
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...
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...
There are three main explanations as to why female labor force participation, globally, remains low: (1) women’s high opportunity cost of time (2) weak labor demand and (3) restrictive gender norms. The research team will test aspects of all three...
As digital technology becomes an ever-growing part of economic life in low-income countries, researchers and policymakers face a moment of both opportunity and risk: technologies like smartphones and mobile internet could connect millions of...
In this project, the research team study whether worker turnover contributes to the misallocation of talent in low-income countries. To this end, they will experimentally evaluate the impacts of offering financial incentives for worker retention in...
The emergence of low-skill manufacturing sectors in developing countries can increase labor market opportunities and provide other economics benefits for women (Heath and Mobarak, 2015; Tanaka, 2017). But in light of the poor conditions that...
In many developing countries, the private sector lacks monitoring systems to provide firms with incentives for good behavior. In part, this problem is due to weak, sometimes corrupt state institutions (Dal Bó and Finan, 2016). In part, it may also...
The project aims to examine the evidence for the “Doing Gender” hypothesis in Ghana. We examine whether greater earnings by Ghanaian women is associated with increased household bargaining power, proxied by the division of housework between a...
We propose a randomised controlled trial to test the impact of two low-cost interventions to overcome psychological and information constraints to female labor force participation (FLFP). Our research questions are, does (i) motivating female...
In rural agrarian economies, the period between planting and harvest is often a “lean season” when labor demand and wages fall, and the price of staples rise. The landless poor reliant on agricultural work on others’ farms are especially hard...
Youth account for 60% of Africa’s unemployed. In Rwanda, 72% of employed youth work for family firms or are self-employed (African Economic Outlook 2016). These outcomes suggest that schools are failing to develop the skills required to enter...
Despite increased investment and international competition in agriculture, small-scale farming continues to be the most common economic activity in many developing countries. In Zambia, 60% of the population lives in rural areas, where 78% of the...
Many of the world‘s poorest people live and work in dense informal settlements in Africa’s growing megacities. These communities have both positives and negatives. On one side, settlements, often located in central areas, provide workers...
Youth underemployment is a major challenge facing developing nations, particularly in Africa (Filmer and Fox 2014). Young people are more likely to be unemployed than older adults (Kluve et al. 2016). In low-income countries, unemployment figures...
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in income and employment generation in local economies, and SMEs account for a large share of businesses in low and income countries (LMICs). SMEs in LMICs are concentrated in activities...
Labour markets in low-income countries experience many frictions that impair efficient firm-worker matching (Behrman, 1999). Information frictions can hinder firms’ attempts to observe workers’ skills and productivity (Abel et al., 2016;...
The objective of the Sudan Labor Market Panel Survey (SLMPS) 2019 is to facilitate better understandings of labor market dynamics and outcomes in Sudan. Our goal with the SLMPS 2019 is to collect high-quality and reliable data sufficient for...
The third Millennium Development Goal is to “Promote gender equality and empower women.” This goal is given some urgency by the fact that significant gender gaps remain, especially in Low-Income countries (LICs). The World Bank’s 2012 World...
Increasing schooling, delaying marriage and childbearing, and increasing labour market participation of young women are important policy objectives in Senegal as in many developing countries. These outcomes are tightly linked. Early childbearing may...
Integrating young adults into the formal labour market is a major challenge facing developing nations, particularly in Africa (World Bank 2007). High levels of unemployment, especially among youth, have led many policymakers to advocate microfinance...
Public Works Programs (PWPs) are important tools for social protection. At the time of the beginning of the project, there were 167 PWPs in 29 sub-Saharan Africa. There are short-term and long-term PWPs. Short-term PWPs can stabilise consumption in...
Small-scale farming continues to be the principal source of employment and income for a majority of the population in low-income countries. Zambia is no exception: in 2008, 80% of employment was in agriculture. Even though Zambia has recently been...
Migrants have long been thought to play a central role in helping an economy to make efficient use of its resources. That migration acts as a force of arbitrage– that it takes place, that it encourages equilibrium, and that it leads to an...
Millions of people around the world have been forced to abandon their homes due to conflict, as either international refugees or internally displaced persons. Forced migration produces significant economic impacts. These impacts involve multiple...
The project consists of two parts. Transitions out of agriculture and into other sectors of the economy are a necessary part of economic development. In Africa, some of the traditional routes out of agriculture- through the domestic industrial...
The project consists of two parts. The first part of the project seeks to understand the relationship between trade, employment, and productivity in a low-income country setting. This topic is particularly timely in the context of recent bilateral...
Jobs are hard to find in Africa. Searching for jobs in African labour markets is expensive and time consuming. Job seekers, the young unemployed in particular, find it hard to be selected for the available positions. As a result, new employment...
Unemployment among young people is one of the most pressing social and economic problems facing less developed countries today. Data from the 2005 Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey found that approximately 21% of youths are unemployed, and a...
We evaluate the impact of and demand for mid-level management training in a group of garment factories in Bangladesh. Industry participants recognise that there exists a shortage of skills needed to fill in lower-level management positions. There...
How can governments and NGOs raise employment and reduce the risk of violence among these poor and risky populations? Aid programmes increasingly focus on helping youth through markets, especially through microenterprise development. The logic of...
Youth employment and micro, small and medium sized enterprise (MSME) development are often in the public debate. Governments in Africa have introduced a number of programmes to promote employment via these mechanisms, but the understanding of which...
The Punjab Economic Opportunity Programme: Evaluating Markets for Skill Acquisition and Employment project has examined the complete scope of all relevant decisions being made in the vocational skills market in target districts in Pakistan. This...
The overall objective of this project is to study the position of women in the labour market as well as policies that shape their position in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, two low-income countries in Central Asia. We focus on three core dimensions....
Bangladesh has been experiencing remarkable growth in the ready-made garments (RMG) industries for the last three decades. It has become an integral and major part of Bangladesh’s economy, which contributes 13 percent of GDP and 75 percent of...
It is a general tenet of economic theory that competitive markets, supported by adequate infrastructure and institutions, do a better job of determining prices and allocating resources than do large-scale government planning programmes. In the...
In 2005, India’s Parliament passed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a landmark in social protection legislation for the country. The Act moved employment into the domain of legally enforceable rights for a population no...
Although employment in low-income countries (LICs) is strikingly concentrated in the informal sector, the contribution of this sub-economy to the larger economy is not well understood. The traditional view holds that labour markets are segmented;...
Fairtrade has spread under the promise that it has the power to lift poor smallholder farmers out of poverty by providing them with technical assistance, credit, and better prices for their crops. Fairtrade is also viewed as a niche market for high...
This project aimed at evaluating the labour market implications of a major social insurance reform program in Ethiopia introduced in June 2011. Employment based and mandatory pension schemes for workers in the formal private sector of Ethiopia were...
This project focuses on the labour market entry situation for women in Pakistan. Social norms against women coming into close contact with unrelated men and the discomfort social stigma and threat of possible harassment when they do so, restricts...
Zimbabwe is a low-income economy emerging from years of economic crisis. The crisis had a profound impact on production, employment and human development. The policy challenges to growth and recovery are severe and will require rigorous economic...
Youth unemployment is a serious issue in developing countries, where around 60% of young people are currently unemployed or underemployed [ILO 2013]. Understanding the determinants of youth employment in LICs is thus highly policy relevant, not just...
Recent research has shown that migrant remittances are extremely important sources of funding for developing countries, as they are generally large in magnitude and stable in times of macroeconomic volatility. But there is still much to be learned...
Rapid urbanisation is a major phenomenon in many developing countries. Cities are the engines of economic development; however, little is known about what determines the success of cities in developing countries, nor about the factors that shape the...
Do relative pay comparisons matter for worker behaviour? A long tradition in economic thought – as well as in psychology, sociology, and human resource management – has advanced the notion that individuals care about not only their own pay but...
Despite the centrality of the labour market to the questions of poverty and inequality, African labour markets are not well understood and significant research gaps exist. These gaps have important implications: they weaken the ability of...
In low-income countries, work in household owned and managed farms account for a large share of the labour force. Yet, to date, there is very little research on the approaches to measuring farm labour. Typically most measurements of farm labour...
High labor costs appear to be a factor that undermines the creation of low-skill jobs in formal manufacturing firms at a large scale in several African countries. First, there exists a small number of formal manufacturing firms in Africa. These...
