Person:
Yamauchi, Futoshi
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Agriculture and food security; economics of education; education, skills development, and the labor market
Degrees
External Links
Departments
Agriculture and Rural Development Unit, Development Research Group, The World Bank
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Futoshi Yamauchi is Senior Economist at the Agriculture and Rural Development unit of Development Research Group. His specializations include human capital formation, the labor market, agriculture, rural development, social learning, and governance issues in developing countries. He has extensive field experience in Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Thailand, and Zambia. Recently, Futoshi has conducted analytical works to support the education sector in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. His papers were published in major journals such as
Journal of Development Economics,
Economic Development and Cultural Change,
Journal of Development Studies,
World Development,
Demography,
Economics of Education Review, and others. Prior to the Bank, Futoshi was a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, and has taught at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Yokohama National University, and Kyoto University. Born in Japan, Futoshi received his B.A. in law and M.A. in economics from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Publication Search Results
1 - 5 of 5
-
Publication
Risks, Ex-ante Actions and Public Assistance : Impacts of Natural Disasters on Child Schooling in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Malawi
( 2009-04-01)This paper examines the impacts of natural disasters on schooling investments with special focus on the roles of ex-ante actions and ex-post responses using panel data from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Malawi. The importance of ex-ante actions depends on disaster risks and the likelihood of public assistance, which potentially creates substitution between the two actions. The findings show that higher future probabilities of disasters increase the likelihood of holding more human capital and/or livestock relative to land, and this asset-portfolio effect is significant in disaster prone areas. The empirical results support the roles of both ex-ante and ex-post responses (public assistance) in coping with disasters, but also show interesting variations across countries. In Ethiopia, public assistance plays a more important role than ex-ante actions to mitigate the impact of shocks on child schooling. In contrast, households in Malawi rely more on private ex-ante actions than public assistance. The Bangladesh example shows active roles of both ex-ante and ex-post actions. These observations are consistent with the finding on the relationship between ex-ante actions and disaster risks. The results also show that among ex-ante actions, human capital accumulated in the household prior to disasters helps mitigate the negative effects of disasters in both the short and long runs. -
Publication
Natural Disasters, Self-Insurance and Human Capital Investment : Evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Malawi
( 2009-04-01)This paper examines the impacts of disasters on dynamic human capital production using panel data from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Malawi. The empirical results show that the accumulation of biological human capital prior to disasters helps children maintain investments in the post-disaster period. Biological human capital formed in early childhood (long-term nutritional status) plays a role of insurance with resilience to disasters by protecting schooling investment and outcomes, although disasters have negative impacts on investment. In Bangladesh, children with more biological human capital are less affected by the adverse effects of floods, and the rate of investment increases with the initial human capital stock in the post-disaster recovery process. In Ethiopia and Malawi, where droughts are rather frequent, exposure to highly frequent droughts in some cases reduces schooling investment but the negative impacts are larger among children embodying less biological human capital. Asset holdings prior to the disasters, especially the household's stock of intellectual human capital, also helps maintain schooling investments at least to the same degree as the stock of human capital accumulated in children prior to the disasters. -
Publication
Reflections of Employers' Gender Preferences in Job Ads in India: An Analysis of Online Job Portal Data
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)Using online job portal data and probabilistic regression estimations, the paper investigates the explicit gender bias and salary gap in the Indian job market, reflected in more than 800,000 job recruitment advertisements. Exploring formal and informal sector occupations, the study finds high existence of employers' gender bias in hiring. Explicit gender preferences are highly job specific, and it is common to mention the preferred gender in job ads, which, in general, favor men over women. Although ads for professional occupations exhibit less explicit gender bias, they are not gender neutral. In all types of professional jobs, irrespective of the share of ads with preference for men or women, on average, ads targeting men specify/offer much higher salary. Employers in elementary sectors as well as blue-collar jobs express more segregated gender preference. The findings support the existing research that argues women are more preferred in low-quality, low-status, typically low-paid informal jobs. Targeting women for low-quality jobs explains half of the mean offered salary gap specified in ads; the rest is direct gender bias. The paper also suggests that, with the rise of new technology and sectors, gender bias in hiring in those new types of jobs is expected to decline. -
Publication
Asymmetric Information on Noncognitive Skills in the Indian Labor Market: An Experiment in Online Job Portal
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03)This paper examines the impact of noncognitive (socio-emotional) skills on job market outcomes, using a randomized control trial implemented in an online job portal in India. Job seekers who registered in the portal were asked to take a Big-Five type personality test and, for a random subsample of the test takers, the results were displayed to potential employers. The outcomes are measured by whether a potential employer shortlisted a job seeker by opening (unlocking) his/her application and background information. The results show that the treatment group for whom test results were shown generally enjoyed a higher probability of unlock. That is, employers are more interested in those for whom they can see personality test results. Such a relationship was not seen in the pre-test period, which confirms that the results are unlikely to be spurious. The study also finds a significant impact among organized, calm, imaginative, and/or quiet applicants (no effect is detected among easy-going, sensitive, realistic, and/or outgoing applicants), which seems to display employers' preference. -
Publication
Toward Labor Market Policy 2.0: The Potential for Using Online Job-Portal Big Data to Inform Labor Market Policies in India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-02)Economists and other social scientists are increasingly using big data analytics to address longstanding economic questions and complement existing information sources. Big data produced by online platforms can yield a wealth of diverse, highly granular, multidimensional information with a variety of potential applications. This paper examines how online job-portal data can be used as a basis for policy-relevant research in the fields of labor economics and workforce skills development, through an empirical analysis of information generated by Babajob, an online Indian job portal. The analysis highlights five key areas where online job-portal data can contribute to the development of labor market policies and analytical knowledge: (i) labor market monitoring and analysis; (ii) assessing demand for workforce skills; (iii) observing job-search behavior and improving skills matching; (iv) predictive analysis of skills demand; and (v) experimental studies. The unique nature of the data produced by online job-search portals allows for the application of diverse analytical methodologies, including descriptive data analysis, time-series analysis, text analysis, predictive analysis, and transactional data analysis. This paper is intended to contribute to the academic literature and the development of public policies. It contributes to the literature on labor economics through application of big data analytics to real-world data. The analysis also provides a unique case study on labor market data analytics in a developing-country context in South Asia. Finally, the report examines the potential for using big data to improve the design and implementation of labor market policies and promote demand-driven skills development.