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Publication - Policy Brief
Is there an urban wage premium in Rwanda?
Rwanda has prioritised urbanisation as a major driver of growth. Our research uses high quality household data to examine whether similar individuals earn and consume more in Rwanda’s cities than would do in its rural areas. We find that nominal urban wages and consumption are larger for urban areas than for rural areas, and larger for bigger cities than for...
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Publication - Policy Brief
Using online job portals to track the real-time impacts of COVID-19 in India
A real-time assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the economy (and labour markets in particular) has been an important policy challenge, especially in low-income countries like India. We leverage real-time, high-frequency data on over 300,000 job postings from Shine.com, India’s second largest online job portal, to investigate the impact of lockdowns on the...
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Publication - Working Paper
Which jobs are lost during a lockdown? Evidence from vacancy postings in India
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Publication - Working Paper
How does a debt waiver impact consumption and precautionary savings? Evidence from a policy experiment
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Publication - Working Paper
The implications of worker and firm heterogeneity for unemployment and self-employment in Ethiopia
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Publication - Working Paper
The determinants and implications of worker turnover in a nascent industry
In this paper we analyse the determinants of turnover in the Ethiopian garment industry. We find suggestive evidence that turnover is costly for both workers and firms. To increase turnover we conduct a pilot field experiment. We compare the effect of a retention bonus schemes and an unconditional bonus payment on worker retention. Surprisingly, we find no statistically...
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Publication - Working Paper
Branch management and firm credit: Evidence from Ethiopia
In order to understand the functioning of banks and firm credit in low-income countries, we collect novel datasets on the management practices and credit conditions from the universe of bank branches in Ethiopia. Our preliminary findings indicate that branches with strong practices operate over longer geographic distances and supply more local credit. We also observe that...
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Publication - Project Report
Gender peer effects in the workplace: A field experiment in call centres in India
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Publication - Policy Brief
Does the gender of your co-worker matter? Evidence from call centres in India
Several theories suggest that gender integration in the workplace may have negative effects in gender-segregated societies. This study presents results from a randomised controlled trial conducted in India on the effect of gender integration on employee productivity. The study was implemented in call centres located in five Indian cities. A total of 765 employees...
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Publication - Project Report
The resilience of informal labour markets
This project studies labour relations in informal economies where there are no written contracts, employment benefits, or protection for workers. ‘Informality’ is a defining characteristic of labour markets in most developing countries, making the study of employment relationships and related policy challenges especially difficult due to the paucity of administrative...
Publication - Policy paper
Scaling energy investments in fragile states
Expanding energy access in fragile contexts is critical for these settings to recover from COVID-19 and escape fragility. This policy paper accompanies the call to action issued by the Council on State Fragility and g7+ on ‘Powering up energy investments in fragile states’, which calls for a new approach for scaling energy access in fragile contexts.