#9 POLICY LESSONS ON FACILITATING LABOR MARKETS GENDER INNOVATION LAB FEDERATION EVIDENCE SERIES GENDER INNOVATION LAB FEDERATION The Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) Federation is a World Bank community of practice coordinated by the Gender Group that brings together the Bank’s five regional GILs: Africa (AFR), East Asia and Pacific (EAP), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Middle East and North Africa (MNA), and South Asia (SAR). Together, they are conducting impact evaluations of development interventions to generate evidence and lessons on how to close gender gaps in human capital, earnings, productivity, assets, voice and agency. With over 188 impact evaluations in 66 countries completed to date, the GIL Federation is building the evidence base for governments, development organizations, and the private sector to increase uptake of effective policies that address the underlying causes of gender inequality. Significant gender gaps in labor force participation Compared to men, women are less likely to enroll and persist around the world.1 When women do work, they complete skills training programs due to unique are much more likely than men to engage in vulnerable constraints they face, such as family obligations, employment with lower earnings and worse working restrictions on mobility, financial access, and conditions. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has perceptions regarding which fields are appropriate for triggered larger losses in employment for women than women to pursue.3 The Africa GIL conducted an RCT in for men across the globe. Liberia to evaluate a year-long employment program that combined job training with interventions addressing Several factors constrain women’s labor force women’s differential constraints. The program offered participation and employment outcomes. On the supply randomly-assigned women six months of classroom- side, time and mobility constraints and differences in based training along with free childcare, savings endowments (skills, assets, and networks) limit women’s accounts, a stipend for transportation, and a completion labor force participation and wages. On the demand bonus. Approximately seven months after the end of the side, discrimination in hiring and retention, lack of jobs training, participants had higher rates of employment with convenient features (childcare, maternity leave, and earnings compared to women not assigned to the flexible schedules), and skills mismatch are key program. constraints. All these are combined with contextual factors, including social and cultural norms, that restrict women’s labor force participation.2 The GIL Federation FINDING 2. CREATING SAFE SPACES FOR is generating rigorous evidence around the world to GIRLS CAN FACILITATE EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMS THAT ENCOURAGE INCOME- understand what works, and what does not, in GENERATING ACTIVITIES supporting women’s labor market participation. This note presents evidence on seven key findings. Africa GIL studies show creating safe spaces for girls where they can receive job or life skills training and complementary interventions is an effective policy FINDING 1. JOB TRAINING DESIGNED TO across a variety of contexts in Sub-Saharan Africa.4 An ADDRESS WOMEN’S DIFFERENTIAL influential RCT conducted in Uganda by the Africa GIL and academics finds significant effects of a CONSTRAINTS CAN IMPROVE WOMEN’S multifaceted program that provided skills transfers in LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES adolescent clubs serving as safe spaces for girls. The study finds that four years after the intervention, adolescent girls in treated communities were more likely targeted Uruguayan students ages 16 to 20 and offered to be self-employed, and there was a sharp reduction in them a one-time, well-paid, formal work experience in teen pregnancy, early marriage, and the share of girls the main state-owned companies of the country. reporting sex against their will in comparison to girls in Selected through yearly lotteries organized in major control communities.5 cities, youths were offered a part-time, non-renewable clerical positions for 9 to 12 months. Participants had to The Africa GIL evaluated a similar program in Sierra be enrolled in secondary education or university at the Leone that took place during the 2014 Ebola epidemic time of application and throughout the program. and demonstrated the protective effect of safe spaces during a crisis.6 The study shows that, in areas where Results show that the program significantly improved girls had access to the clubs, the drop in school employment rates and earnings for both boys and girls enrollment was half as large as in areas where girls did in the following four years, without negatively affecting not have access to the clubs. In severely affected their educational outcomes. Girls managed to close the areas, the program generated a reduction in the time gender gap in formal earnings between themselves and girls spent with men and an increase in time they spent boys who did not participate in the program, but the at school and in income-generating activities. It led to a gender earnings gap persisted when compared to boys complete reversal of the impact that the Ebola epidemic who participated in the program. Girls managed to both had on pregnancies in severely affected control areas. work and study during the program by reducing time spent in household chores, while boys reduced leisure Preliminary results from RCTs the Africa GIL is finalizing time. Ensuring the positive effect of work-study in Uganda, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan indicate programs may require offering high-quality jobs multifaceted programs that create safe spaces for girls compatible with schooling, which have a focus on are effective either in terms of promoting girls’ human capital accumulation. education, economic, sexual and reproductive health outcomes or in terms of dampening the negative effects of a crisis or conflict. However, an evaluation of a similar FINDING 4: INFORMATION AND TRAINING program in Tanzania does not find any impact on these CAN ENCOURAGE WOMEN TO CROSS OVER outcomes.7 Qualitative research suggests that the lack TO BETTER-PAID, MALE-DOMINATED of effects can be linked to resource constraints affecting the quality of implementation. Club meetings and SECTORS trainings were held in public spaces, with lower-quality Lack of exposure and information is just one of many materials; mentors were not appropriately trained; and factors holding women back from male-dominated supervision was less frequent, which led to lower sectors. The Africa GIL conducted a randomized participation among girls. controlled trial (RCT) in the Republic of Congo to see if addressing informational constraints around returns on male-dominated sectors could encourage young FINDING 3. WORK-STUDY PROGRAMS CAN women to apply for training in those sectors. Results FACILITATE THE SCHOOL-TO-WORK show that young women were significantly more likely to TRANSITION OF YOUNG WOMEN apply to a traditionally male-dominated trade when receiving information on trade-specific earnings.9 The The school-to-work transition can be more challenging impact of earnings information on women’s choice of for girls than boys due to a greater burden of unpaid trade was almost four times larger among women who care work, early marriage and teenage pregnancy, and had prior technical experience on the sector and three the disconnect between the labor market and the times larger among women with a male role model. educational system. Young women who drop out of school are more likely to be employed in less stable, Providing information on earnings is a low-cost lower-paid jobs in the informal sector. Work-study intervention that can encourage young women to cross programs can help address gender gaps in the school- over to more lucrative trades, thereby reducing the to-work transition by building work-related kills and gender gap in earnings. In addition, complementary signaling motivation. interventions that provide women with technical experience and knowledge or match them with role A policy brief by the LAC GIL analyzed the effects of a models could enhance the impact of such interventions. work-study program in Uruguay on time use and labor market outcomes for girls and boys.8 The program Self-defeating biases also keep women away from counseling workshops for women can be a low-cost sectors that require specialized skills and offer a higher design tweak that can substantially boost the wage. The information and communications technology effectiveness of existing programs and encourage (ICT) sector is such a sector where women are women’s entry into the labor market. underrepresented and high wage premiums for ICT skills are offered. The Africa GIL conducted an RCT in Information asymmetries about workers’ skills are Nigeria to estimate the effects of job training on sectoral prevalent in labor markets, especially in the market for switches into the ICT sector among women university low-skill and entry-level jobs. Most firms in developing graduates.10 Results show that two years after the countries resort to informal referrals, such as those from training, participants were 26 percent more likely to their existing workforce. This can exacerbate inequity, work in the ICT sector than the control group who did particularly toward less connected groups, like women not receive training. The program’s impact was workers. Reference letters from former employers can strongest among women who initially held implicit break down information barriers about women workers’ biases against associating women with professional skills and improve job matches. The Africa GIL attributes. These women were more likely to switch into conducted an RCT in South Africa to test the impact of the ICT sector after the program than initially unbiased formal reference letters from former employers.12 A women. simple intervention—encouraging job seekers to obtain a standardized reference letter from a former employer—improved firms’ screening ability and FINDING 5. BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS doubled women’s employment likelihood compared to AND REFERENCE LETTERS CAN INCREASE job applications without reference letters. JOB SEARCH EFFICIENCY AND THE PROBABILITY OF GETTING HIRED FINDING 6. RESEARCH SHOWS EVIDENCE OF Drawing on lessons from behavioral science, the Africa DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN IN GIL conducted an RCT to test the impact of an action HIRING DECISIONS planning tool to promote greater job search intensity among unemployed youth in South Africa.11 Participants The SAR GIL conducted a study in India that analyzed were randomly assigned to three treatment arms: 800,000 online job recruitment advertisements.13 The control group, a career counseling workshop, and the study finds high prevalence of employers’ gender bias workshop plus an action planning tool consisting of a in hiring. While explicit gender preferences varied by detailed weekly plan template with weekly goals. job type, on average, ads that targeted men offered much higher salary than ads that targeted women. The Results indicate that action planning helps unemployed study supports existing evidence that women are more youths adopt a more efficient and effective search likely to be chosen for low-quality, and typically low- strategy compared to the control and workshop-only paying informal jobs. A decomposition shows that half groups. There were positive effects on the number of of the gender gap in wages is explained by women job applications submitted without any increase in the being offered lower quality jobs, while the remaining time spent searching, suggesting an increase in the part of the gap is explained by direct discrimination. efficiency of search. This greater efficiency translates into more job offers, and a greater likelihood of employment. Adding a plan-making activity to job FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Diego Ubfal dubfal@worldbank.org 1818 H St NW Washington, DC 20433 USA https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/gender ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This brief is a product of collaboration between the World Bank Gender Group and the Gender Innovation Labs. It was prepared by Daniel Halim, Diego Ubfal, and Rigzom Wangchuk with key inputs from Diana Arango, Elizaveta Perova, and Rachael Pierotti. It was copy-edited by Leslie Ashby. Other contributors include Lourdes Rodriguez Chamussy, Maria Emilia Cucagna, Isis Gaddis, Markus Goldstein, Jacobus Joost De Hoop, Forest Brach Jarvis, Hillary C. Johnson, Lili Mottaghi, Michael B. O'Sullivan, Laura B. Rawlings, Javier Romero, Jayati Sethi, and Emcet Tas. The World Bank GILs and the GIL Federation are supported by the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank and supported with generous contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. ENDNOTES 1 World Bank Gender Data Portal. 2022. Female labor force participation. The World Bank. 2 Halim, Daniel, Michael O’ Sullivan and Abhilasha Sahay. 2022. Thematic Policy Brief on Increasing Women’s Labor Force Participation. Gender Group, World Bank. 3 Beegle, Kathleen, and Eliana Rubiano-Matulevich, Eliana. 2020. Adapting Skills Training to Address Constraints to Women’s Participation. Jobs Notes Issue No. 7, World Bank. 4 World Bank. 2020. GIL Top Policy Lessons on Empowering Adolescent Girls. Africa Gender Innovation Lab, World Bank. GIL Top Policy Lessons on Empowering Adolescent Girls. 5 Bandiera, Oriana, Niklas Buehren, Robin Burgess, Markus Goldstein, Selim Gulesci, Imran Rasul, and Munshi Sulaiman. 2020. Women's Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 12(1): 210-59. 6 Bandiera, Oriana, Niklas Buehren, Markus Goldstein, Imran Rasul, and Andrea Smurra (2019). The Economic Lives of Young Women in the Time of Ebola: Lessons from an Empowerment Program. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 8760. 7 Buehren, Niklas, Markus Goldstein, Selim Gulesci, Munshi Sulaiman, and Venus Yam. 2017. Evaluation of an Adolescent Development Program for Girls in Tanzania. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 7961. 8 Ubfal, Diego. 2022. Facilitating the School to Work Transition of Young Women. LAC GIL Policy Brief. 9 Gassier, Marine, Lea Rouanet, and Lacina Traore. 2022. Addressing Gender-Based Segregation through Information: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in the Republic of Congo. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9934. 10 Africa GIL: Croke, Kevin; Goldstein, Markus; Holla, Alaka. 2017. The Role of Skills and Gender Norms in Sector Switches: Experimental Evidence from a Job Training Program in Nigeria. Policy Research Working Paper WPS8141. The World Bank. 11 Abel, Martin, Rulof Burger, Eliana Carranza, and Patrizio Piraino. 2019. Bridging the Intention-Behavior Gap? The Effect of Plan-Making Prompts on Job Search and Employment. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 11 (2): 284–301. 12 Abel, Martin, Rulof Burger, and Patrizio Piraino. 2020. The Value of Reference Letters: Experimental Evidence from South Africa. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 12 (3): 40–71. 13 Chowdhury, Afra, Ana Areias, Saori Imaizumi, Shinsaku Nomura, and Futoshi Yamauchi. 2018. Reflections of Employers' Gender Preferences in Job Ads in India: An Analysis of Online Job Portal Data. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 8379.