Increasing the cost of informal employment raised formalisation rates for workers at formal firms. However, it also led to a large, persistent drop in firm size. There is a trade-off between higher formalisation rates for current employees and lower ...
What are the barriers to women’s labour force participation in Bangladesh? What are some promising evidence-based policy options? Where is more evidence required?
The New Deal’s youth employment programme, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), had significant long-run benefits, increasing the lifetime earnings and longevity of its participants, despite having few effects on short-term labour market outcomes.
Jobs in Peru use a larger number of skills than comparable jobs in the US. This lack of specialisation is consistent with firms’ hiring of "toderos" (workers with many skills, do-it-alls), given the high levels of worker reallocation.
Minimum wage increases in China are spent rather than saved, and are not associated with increased unemployment. In households with children, a significant portion of the additional income is allocated to healthcare and education.
Flexible work arrangements can both attract women to the labour force and provide a gateway to outside-the-home jobs. In India, where gender norms keep women out of the labour force, home-based jobs may represent the most immediate path to increase w...
Employers under-invest in training their employees in general skills. Evidence from rural Burundi shows that while there are large returns to providing training, these are not captured by the employer who invested in it due to short contract duration...
