New Technologies for Labor Market Orientation and Skill-Match: Experimental Evidence from the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy
Alexia Delfino (Bocconi University)
Raffaella Sadun (Harvard Business School)
Abstract: The Covid-19 shock has heightened the interest in labor market policies able to help displaced and unemployed workers re-engage with the labor market. These policies are deemed to be especially important for women, who were disproportionally hit by the economic and societal disruptions brought by the pandemic.
However, evidence on how to help jobseekers (and women in particular) actively re-engage with the job market after an economic shock is, to date, scant. In particular, little is known about the possible informational, psychological, and time-related frictions that may inhibit jobseekers’ ability to effectively engage in a productive job search behavior; the extent to which these frictions may be particularly acute for women; and whether they can be alleviated.
This project will provide new evidence on the relevance of these frictions for women jobseekers through a field experiment conducted within a public-private partnership in Italy. Specifically, we will test the gender-specific effects of an innovative technological tool aimed at providing unemployed jobseekers with highly individualized information on their skills, and their skill-match within different occupations for which there exist robust demand. The tool has been developed by one of our partners with our input and is specifically targeted at users with low to middle levels of education. Pilot of the project is ongoing.
The Labor Market Returns to Delaying Pregnancy
Yana Gallen (University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy)
Juanna Schroeter Joensen (University of Chicago)
Gregory Veramendi (University of Munich)
Abstract: Childbirth is associated with large and persistent declines in earnings for mothers. These large costs may induce women to invest more in careers which are less affected by childbirth, or to time children to reduce their career impact. Estimating the causal impact of the timing of children is challenging. In this project, we study the career and family outcomes of women who become pregnant while using long-acting reversible birth control, Intrauterine Devices (IUDs) and birth control implants. These methods of birth control are extremely effective, but not perfect—about 0.5% of women using a non-expired IUD will get pregnant in a year, resulting in a natural experiment in which women who had hoped to delay childbirth become pregnant earlier than they expected. Using Swedish administrative data, our preliminary empirical results suggest that there are substantial labor market impacts of unplanned pregnancy, but that these do not differ meaningfully from the impact of childbirth. In this project, we will link a survey of Swedish women without children to the administrative data to better understand how women think about the career impact of children, and how these expectations differ from the actual impacts.
Women Leaders Improve Environmental Outcomes: Evidence from Crop Fires in India
Maulik Jagnani (University of Colorado Denver)
Meera Mahadevan (University of California, Irvine)
Abstract: Effective climate action requires leaders that implement pro-environmental policies. Survey evidence suggests that women have a greater concern for the environment. Yet, whether these concerns translate to policy changes when women are elected to political office is an open question. Using a close-election regression discontinuity design to isolate the impact of women narrowly being elected over male candidates, we find that the election of women legislators in India leads to a 15% decrease in crop-fire incidents. This is accompanied by a large and statistically significant decrease in air pollution for constituencies led by women, in particular black carbon, organic carbon, and SO2, all of which are precursors to PM2.5. These effects on crop fires and air pollution are predictably concentrated during the winter harvest and post-harvest months, with comparatively modest effects during the rest of the year. In falsification tests, we show no effects on crop fires or air pollution in the years prior to state elections. To examine the mechanisms, we aim to administer telephonic surveys to a general population of men and women in rural India, male and female leaders at the village council level, and block development offices responsible for policy implementation at the sub-district level.
Weather shocks and female labor force participation in Bangladesh
Rachel Brulé (Boston University, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies)
Akshay Dixit (Harvard University)
Abstract: How do extreme weather events affect women’s labor force participation? We theorize that unanticipated weather shocks have explicitly gendered effects. They induce greater male outmigration, thereby increasing women’s autonomy to pursue economic opportunities. Simultaneously, the crisis of a weather shock also increases the caregiving burdens women bear to ensure household survival, crowding out the time that women may have spent on earning independent income. The net effect of weather shocks on women’s labor force participation depends on whether the benefits in autonomy outweigh the burdens of care. A key mediating factor, we argue, is the nature of female social networks. Access to dense female social networks enables women to leverage collective resources—both social and political—for maximally efficient care provision that opens space for female economic autonomy. Focusing on Bangladesh, we will use data from the Demographic & Health Surveys in conjunction with primary data on women’s time use, social networks, income and control over wealth, to investigate our theory about the economic effects of weather shocks on women.
What Does the Future Hold for Women in a Post-Pandemic World?
Misty L. Heggeness (U.S. Census Bureau, University of Maryland)
Abstract: COVID-19 has had a seismic effect on women’s paid labor in large part because women disproportionately occupied jobs in sectors more heavily hit by firm closings due to government stay-at-home orders. In addition, women’s time use shifted heavily to childcare and educational support during the pandemic. Using the Current Population Survey and American Time Use Survey, I demonstrate how recent pandemic-induced economic shocks affecting schools and daycares disproportionately increased the time spent in domestic tasks for women from diverse backgrounds, negatively impacting their labor supply. Although the pandemic pressed more heavily on women and their employment, the experiences of individual women varied. In this project, I explore the employment outcomes of women from diverse demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and I study the relationship between systems of care and the ability of women to work for pay. I highlight the ways in which these inequalities in care structures have affected labor market outcomes for women.