Publication: Do Factory Jobs Improve Welfare? Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia
Loading...
Published
2025-02-12
ISSN
0258-6770
Date
2025-02-12
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This study explores the impact of a light-touch job-facilitation intervention that supported young female job seekers during the application process for factory work in a newly constructed industrial park in Ethiopia. Using data from a panel of 687 job seekers and randomized access to the support intervention, the study finds that treated applicants are more likely to be employed and have higher earnings and savings eight months after baseline, although these impacts are short-lived. Four years later, the effects on employment and income largely dissipated. The results suggest that young women face significant barriers to engaging in factory work in the short run that a simple job-facilitation intervention can help overcome. In the long term, however, these jobs do not offer a better alternative than other income-generating opportunities.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Abebe, Girum; Buehren, Niklas; Goldstein, Markus. 2025. Do Factory Jobs Improve Welfare? Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia. World Bank Economic Review. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42801 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
World Bank Economic Review
1564-698X
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
No results found.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Pathways for Education(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-08)This work aims to offer a strategic approach to policymakers when undertaking digital transformation reforms in education and skills development systems, with a focus on “how.” It builds on the World Bank education vision framework offered in realizing the future of Learning by unpacking the digital cross-cutting area of “Invest wisely in technology”, looking into how this may be done to maximize impact at scale for all. The authors promote cautious optimism and techno realism, clarifying how the education and skills sector can use digital technologies to its advantage by being proactive, strategic, and evidence-based, considering carefully why to use digital and in what conditions the existing and emerging technologies might be positively leveraged. It is widely recognized that one size does not fit all and that policymakers need to have a laser focus on learning, weighing in contextual needs, and purposefully using the next marginal investable dollar on digital solutions to fulfill education objectives equitably at scale for all. Along with policymakers in government who are the primary audience for this work, it is intended to enable dialogue and critical partnerships across industry, academia, researchers and multilateral, and World Bank staff to support and deepen our country engagements as countries increasingly expand the digital reach of public education services.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication The Changing Wealth of Nations(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-29)In this report, we update and extend the methodology developed for the previous CWON 2021 report to assess the economic value of non-wood ecosystem services from forests (Siikamäki et al. 2021). Like the earlier assessment, we develop a meta-analytic predictive model using regression and machine learning techniques to spatially estimate the value of the following three ecosystem services: (1) recreation, hunting, and fishing; (2) non-wood forest products; and (3) watershed protection (hereafter, “water services”). These values are produced using 0.1º by0.1º (approximately 10km by 10km) spatial resolution and then combined and spatially aggregated to estimate country-wealth from non-wood forest products. In addition, we develop an operational method to estimate the contribution of protected areas to the value of non-wood forest productions.Publication Inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-17)The growing disparity between the rich and poor remains a critical challenge, affecting countries across all continents, irrespective of their per capita gross domestic product. This widening gap not only impedes efforts to eradicate extreme poverty but also hinders progress toward social justice and resilience-building. Rising inequalities pose substantial barriers to sustainable development, and it is within this context that this book, 'Inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Multidimensional Perspectives and Future Challenges', contributes to ongoing debates, offering a comprehensive analysis of the current challenges and future perspectives of inequality on the African continent. Despite the intensification of calls for wealth taxation and inequality reduction, progress has been slow. A key challenge lies in creating a viable political path for implementing progressive taxation policies. Resistance from those benefiting from the current system often stalls efforts, making progress difficult. Moreover, reducing inequality requires mechanisms that address inequality at its roots. Policies targeting education, competition, financial market regulation, and industrial development all hold the potential to create equitable economic opportunities, ensuring access to credit, job creation, and more-balanced economic growth. Despite facing unique, profound challenges, Africa is often overlooked in these global discussions. This book seeks to place the continent’s issues of income inequality, unequal access to education and health care, climate vulnerability, and inclusive growth at the center of the conversation. The book further advocates for innovative policies, including competition reforms and bargaining frameworks that shift the balance between capital and labor. Given that inequality in Africa is deeply rooted in historical, economic, and institutional factors, a stronger focus on pre-distribution policies is necessary. These systemic changes can help reshape the conditions under which inequality emerges and persists. In addition to policy reforms, it is vital to strengthen the research and academic infrastructure that underpins the understanding of inequality. Equity concerns must be addressed within the scientific field, and African research capabilities must be bolstered. This volume, written in collaboration with the African Center of Excellence for Inequality Research, calls for a greater focus on empowering African researchers as part of a broader development strategy. By doing so, it aligns with the World Bank’s and the Agence Française de Développement’s commitment to supporting research as a critical tool for sustainable development.Publication Unlocking the Power of Healthy Longevity(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-12)Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are among the major health and development challenges of our time. Every year, about 41 million people die due to NCDs. This makes up about 74 percent of all deaths globally, the majority of which are in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Countless more people live with NCDs every day. Yet, NCDs are largely treatable and preventable. The risk of developing NCDs and deaths from them can both be lowered with appropriate attention to prevention and treatment. However, weak health systems and limited access to affordable care and information, especially in LMICs, contribute to lapses in seeking and receiving appropriate and timely care. This compendium is a compilation of 18 chapters, each exploring a different but related topic in the nexus of NCDs, human capital, and productivity. It is based on a series of analytical work taken up by the World Bank to support the Healthy Longevity Initiative (HLI) - a collaborative effort between the World Bank, the University of Toronto, and key academic and development partners including the Harvard University and the University of Washington. The HLI presents one of a growing set of efforts to increase the urgency of policy response to NCDs across the world.