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 response to individual or aggregate shocks. Long-term programs, on the other hand, are forms of insurance….
Public Works Programs and Farm Household Behaviour
Food Constraints and “Ganyu” Labour
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 re-classified as lower middle-income country primarily due to its large copper and cobalt exports, most Zambian…
How do Labour Markets Equilibrate?
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 efficient allocation of resources – is one of the central tenets of…
The Labour Market Impacts of Forced Migration
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 factors, but one key element of these impacts is labour markets. Labour markets have important implications for long-term development after an…
Labour Migration and Structural Change in Rural Labour Markets
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 revolution, a “green revolution” in the agricultural sector, or trade reforms that stimulate industrial growth- have not…
Structural Change, International Trade, and Labour Markets in a Low-Income Country
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 free trade agreements and international trade negotiations, which aim to improve the trading prospects of low-income countries. …
Assisting Job Search in Low-Employment Communities
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 opportunities are often not shared equally. Many economies in sub-Saharan Africa have achieved high…
Start-Up Capital for Youth
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 further 25% are neither in school nor working. While the traditional academic schooling track offers large labour…
Building Management Hierarchies for Growth in LICs
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 are several reasons firms may fail to provide socially optimal levels of training, and the project is designed…
High-Risk Youth in Post-Conflict Liberia
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 this assistance, however, rests on the existence of market failures among the poorest of the poor: imperfect credit markets, or…