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 life and, thereby, economic activities. The pandemic therefore not only imposes a global health threat, but it poses…
RCT
Returns to Childcare and Capital: Experimental Evidence from Uganda
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 the power of finance for small-scale business development, a growing literature shows that success cannot be taken…
Taming Counterfeits Markets with Consumer Information
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 agricultural inputs—such as seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides–is often low in rural African markets. The inability of buyers to…
Meet Your Future: Job Search Effort and Aspirations of Young Jobseekers
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 labor markets characterized by high levels of informality. The experimental setting is that of Vocational Training Institutes (VTIs) in…
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…
The Impact of Subsidized Access to Nurseries and Employment Services on Mothers’ Labour Market Outcomes and Child Development in Egypt
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 constraints on FLFP in a low-income context in Egypt. They will specifically answer the following…
Can Temporary Financial Incentives for Female Industrial Workers Lead to Long-Term Retention and a Better Allocation of Talent?
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 context of a female-dominated occupation in the nascent garment manufacturing industry in Ethiopia. Our main hypothesis is that…
The Roles of Information and Search Frictions in Determining Working Conditions in Bangladesh’s Apparel Sector
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 characterize many low-skill manufacturing sectors, some researchers have questioned whether manufacturing jobs are actually better for workers than their alternatives….
Overcoming Constraints to Female Labour Force Entry
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 students and (ii) providing information about the job market, promote female labor force entry, as measured by their likelihood of applying…
Relaxing Seasonal Constraints to Improve Labour Productivity
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 population were employed in agriculture in 2012 (Zambia Labor Force Survey, 2012). Rainfall patterns in Zambia allow for only…