Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes
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Publication
Women’s Employment and Safety Perceptions: Evidence from Low-income Neighborhoods of Dhaka, Bangladesh
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-08)This brief uses the 2018 Dhaka Low-Income Area Gender, Inclusion, and Poverty (DIGNITY) survey to assess the gender gap in safety perceptions and analyze the correlation between women’s safety perception and their labor market outcomes. The analysis shows that women are significantly less likely than men to feel safe in the low-income neighborhoods of Dhaka. While the percentage of women who reported feeling safe increased with age, living standard, and the availability of streetlights, the percentage of women who reported feeling safe decreased with education and concern of eviction. The analysis further shows that this gender gap in safety perception disproportionately hurt women’s labor market outcomes. Women who feel safe are much more likely to be economically active, work outside their neighborhoods, and explore economic opportunities. -
Publication
Gender and Safety Nets: Priorities for Building Back Better
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)Achieving gender equality and economic inclusion is critical for economic growth and prosperity. The pandemic threatens to reverse hard-won gains towards gender equality. Before the crisis, women were more likely than men to be engaged in vulnerable forms of work in low- and middle-income countries, were overrepresented in sectors with the largest economic disruptions, and carried the brunt of increased care work. During the crisis, their income opportunities have taken a big hit. In Ethiopia, for example, women respondents to a phone survey conducted during the early stages of the pandemic were found to be more likely than men respondents to have lost their jobs (15 percent versus 12 percent) (Ambel et al. 2020). In Latin America, women workers were 44 percent more likely than men workers to lose their jobs at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. Woman-led microbusinesses, in the hospitality industry, and in countries more severely affected by the COVID-19 shock was disproportionately affected compared with corresponding businesses led by men (Torres et al. 2021). Women and older girls also bear a disproportionate share of the care responsibilities arising because of school closures among family members affected by COVID-19. Reports of gender-based violence have increased around the world. -
Publication
COVID-19 and Inequality: How Unequal Was the Recovery from the Initial Shock?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)The restrictions on mobility and economic activity that were put in place to mitigate the health impacts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic have had an unequal impact both across and within countries, with vulnerable populations within developing countries being affected disproportionately. An important concern is that the recovery may be similarly inequitable. Across the 17 developing countries in our sample, where policies became more conducive to mobility and economic activity, we indeed observe a partial recovery of employment and incomes in most countries, as well as improvements in food security. Although job recovery and lower policy stringency were accompanied by an overall fall in the share of the food-insecure population from 13 percent to 9 percent, those living in rural areas witnessed slower declines in food insecurity. However, the recovery was not only incomplete, but also uneven within countries. In particular, the recovery in employment among those who suffered larger initial shocks - - women, non-college-educated, and urban workers - - was not sufficient to significantly reduce the initial disparities in losses. By August-September, female employment had only recovered 30 percent of what was lost between pre-pandemic and May-June (versus 49 percent for men). Finally, more recent data for a smaller number of countries up to January 2021 indicates that while food security continued improving in these countries, recovery in employment appears to have stalled, while the disparities by gender and education persisted. -
Publication
Improving Gender Wage Equality Reduces Intimate Partner Violence in Brazil: Policy Implications for Mothers
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05)More wage equality for women reduces violence against women in urban Brazil. Evidence shows that violence has declined at various levels of severity. Wage equality may be improved through family-friendly policies such as preschool provision and maternity leave. Public safety and legal protections are also needed. -
Publication
COVID-19 Impact Monitoring at the Household Level: Burkina Faso, Brief No. 7
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03)This note presents the results of the seventh round of a nationally representative telephone survey (HFPS). The BFA Covid-19 (coronavirus) HFPS - Round 7 was administered between February 12 and March 2, 2021. The following modules were administered during the 7th visit: Access to basic services; Employment and income; Food Safety; Mental health, and Social protection. In addition to the 1985 households successfully interviewed in the sixth round, in an effort to maintain sample size, additional 47 households that had not been successfully interviewed in previous rounds but did not refuse to participate in the survey were called in this seventh round. 18 households were excluded from the sample as they refused to participate in Round 6, and 21 were excluded as they weren’t contacted in the past three consecutive rounds. 1994 households (98.13 percent of the 2,032 attempted) were contacted and 1,979 (97.39 percent) were successfully interviewed. 13 households refused outright to be interviewed. For the sake of simplicity, this note focuses on modules related to mental health, employment dynamics, and social protection. -
Publication
Impacts of COVID-19 on Labor Markets and Household Well-Being in Pakistan: Evidence From an Online Job Platform
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-02)This brief uses the administrative database of Pakistan’s largest online job platform and an online COVID-19 survey to examine the gender impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on labor markets and other well-being indicators. The analysis shows that the pandemic led to an unprecedented level of economic insecurity, resulting in widespread job loss, business closures, slowdown in business activity, and reduced working hours. The sectors where women are more likely to be employed, such as education and health, were more severely affected, yet the post-pandemic recovery was faster for males. The pandemic has also led to a disproportionate increase in women’s unpaid care work, as well as increasing their reported rates of stress, anxiety and exposure to violence. These findings suggest that impacts resulting from COVID-19 might lead to further declines in women’s participation in the economy in Pakistan, where women’s labor force participation is already among the world’s lowest. -
Publication
Early Labor Market Impacts of COVID-19 in Developing Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-01-22)The economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced mobility and economic activity, disrupting the lives of people around the globe. This brief presents estimates on the crisis’ impact on labor markets in 39 countries based on high-frequency phone survey (HFPS) data collected between April and July 2020. Workers in these countries experienced severe labor market disruptions following the COVID-19 outbreak. 34 percent of respondents reported stopping work, 20 percent of wage workers reported lack of payment for work performed, 9 percent reported job changes due to the pandemic, and 62 percent reported income loss in their household. Measures of work stoppage and income loss in the HFPS are generally consistent with GDP growth projections in Latin America and the Caribbean but not in Sub-Saharan Africa, indicating that the phone survey data contributes valuable new information about the impacts of the crisis. Ensuring availability of such critical data in the future will require investments into statistical and physical infrastructure as well as human capital to set up Emergency Observatories, which can rapidly deploy phone surveys to inform decision makers. -
Publication
COVID-19 Monitoring Survey in Poor and Slum Areas of Dhaka and Chittagong: Bangladesh Labor Market Situation As of Round 3, January 13 - February 27, 2021
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021)To track the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on labor markets and household coping strategies, a rapid phone survey was implemented on a representative sample of households living in poor and slum areas of Dhaka and Chittagong City Corporations (CCs). This brief, the fifth in the series, summarizes results from the first, second, and third rounds of the rapid phone survey, conducted from June 10 to July 10, 2020, from September 2 to October 11, 2020, and from January 13 to February 27, 2021, respectively. Eighty-eight percent of respondents interviewed in the first and second survey rounds were reached in the third round (see annex 1 for details of the survey design and response rates). This brief focuses on how the labor-market situation evolved between the rounds a year after the onset of the crisis. -
Publication
COVID-19 Impact Monitoring at the Household Level: Burkina Faso, Brief No. 5
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-01)This note presents the results of the fifth round of a nationally re presentative telephone survey ( HFPS). Data collection took place between December 9 and December 30,2020. In addition to the 2,011 households successfully interviewed in the fourth round, in an effort to maintain sample size, additional 84 households that had not been successfully interviewed in previous rounds but did not ref use to participate in the survey were called in this fifth round. 9 households were excluded from the sample of Round 5 as they ref used to participate in Round 4. 1,968 households (93.9 4 percent of the 2,095 attempted) w ere contacted and 1,944 (92.79 percent) were successfully interviewed in Round 5. Of those contacted, 24 households ref used outright to be interviewed. The questionnaire includes key modules that had already been administered in previous rounds, namely, access to food and health services, employment and income, and shocks. Major additions were made to the questionnaire: (i) a module on Covid-19 (coronavirus) testing and vaccination; (ii) expansion of the education module to cover the resumption of classes and get an idea of the impact of Covid-19 on school attendance. For the sake of simplicity, this note focuses on these two new themes. -
Publication
COVID-19 Monitoring Survey in Poor and Slum Areas of Dhaka and Chittagong: Bangladesh Labor Market Situation as of Round 2, September 2 - October 11, 2020
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021)By September 2020, Dhaka and Chittagong labor markets in Bangladesh showed signs of recovery in employment. Employment recovered faster in Chittagong, reaching pre-COVID-19 levels, while Dhaka remained below pre-COVID-19 employment levels. To track the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on labor markets and household coping strategies, a rapid phone survey was implemented on a representative sample of households living in poor and slum areas of Dhaka and Chittagong City Corporations (CCs). This brief, the third in the series, summarizes results from the first and second rounds of the rapid phone survey, conducted from June 10 to July 10, 2020, and from September 2 to October 11, 2020. Ninety-four percent of respondents interviewed in the first survey round were reached in the second round. This brief focuses on how the labor market situation evolved between the two rounds.