Labour markets in low-income countries are characterised by informal work, in which most people cycle between casual wage labour and low-return self-employment, facing weak returns to skills and experience. Improving outcomes will require not just more education but better matching, as well as a deeper understanding of worker constraints and employer behaviour.

Many rural workers turn to self-employment for lack of available jobs, not visions of entrepreneurship

How do consumers learn to navigate a new financial technology? An experiment with workers from Bangladesh suggests that experience makes a difference

The introduction of financial institutions in communities may generate long-lasting externalities, including losses in informal social linkages

How automatic payments can help individuals save more and better protect themselves against consumer risks

Microfinance has potentially transformative impacts for some entrepreneurs, especially those who otherwise would be stuck in a poverty trap

Social norms help sustain wage floors with workers taking jobs at wage cuts in private, but rejecting them in public due to fear of sanctions

Revoking access to microcredit was costly – and not just for the households that borrowed