Labour Markets

How mental health affects women’s labour force participation in Ghana

Among women in rural Ghana, depression and anxiety reduce take-up for jobs outside the home, but have no effect on productivity or earnings when the same job is offered at home – suggesting that work environment is a key barrier to labour market part...

Labour Markets

Leandro Carvalho Damien de Walque Crick Lund Heather Schofield Vincent Somville Jingyao Wei

Published

17.04.26

Women in India valued longer maternity leave, but it cost them jobs

Expanding paid maternity leave in India from 12 to 26 weeks led employers to cut women's employment by up to 10% and favour men for promotions, while leaving wages unchanged. Women greatly valued longer leaves such that the policy was broadly cost-be...

Labour Markets

Pulak Ghosh Stephanie Hao Lisa Ho Garima Sharma Shreya Tandon

Published

21.04.26

How does cheap access to foreign technology impact the informal sector?

In Mexico, reducing tariffs on imported inputs helped workers move from informal to formal employment, particularly benefiting skilled workers who are most complementary to foreign technology.

Labour Markets

Pamela Bombarda Maria Bas

Published

16.04.26

Understanding the gig economy: Lessons from drivers in India, Indonesia, and Kenya

While gig drivers' demographic profiles, earnings, and work experiences differ markedly across India, Indonesia, and Kenya, a common thread emerges: the flexibility to work more hours allows drivers to increase their monthly earnings, and, in some co...

Labour Markets

Achyuta Adhvaryu Valentina Brailovskaya

Published

26.03.26

The race between the marriage and the labour markets

In Pakistan, encouraging women to apply for jobs immediately after graduation significantly improves their likelihood of working by enabling them to enter the labour market before marriage pressures intensify. Results are driven by the women who misp...

Labour Markets

Oriana Bandiera Amen Jalal Nina Roussille

Published

19.03.26

Why graduates struggle to find jobs in West Africa

Educated unemployment in urban West Africa stems from educated workers rationally waiting for scarce, high-paying public and formal private jobs in labour markets characterised by severe hiring frictions. Policies that reduce private-sector hiring co...

Labour Markets

Esther Mirjam Girsberger Romuald Méango

Published

12.03.26

What education and minimum wages can – and can’t – do about wage inequality

In Brazil, education raised productivity and reduced informality, while minimum wage increases compressed inequality but risked lowering formal employment for low-skilled workers.

Labour Markets

Daniel Haanwinckel

Published

23.02.26

When women can’t move freely and easily, they can’t participate in the labour force

Women’s participation in skills training Pakistan is constrained primarily by social and safety barriers, rather than preferences or the ability to monetise skills. Evidence from interventions that reduce these constraints shows that addressing mobil...

Labour Markets

Ali Cheema Asim Ijaz Khwaja Muhammad Farooq Naseer Jacob Shapiro

Published

19.02.26

Thinking like an economist about AI, labour markets, and AGI

How do economists think about the economic impacts of AI today? And will our current economic paradigm still make sense if we reach AGI?

Labour Markets

Anton Korinek Oliver Hanney Deena Mousa

Published

17.02.26