Differences in earnings between male and female workers persist in developed and developing countries despite a narrowing of gender gaps in educational attainment over the past half-century. This paper examines the gender wage gap in Vietnam and shows that a nontrivial part of the gap is...

Vietnam has achieved important progress in closing the gender gap in education and increasing women’s labor force participation. However, are women’s labor market opportunities on par with those of men? We analyze the gender earnings gap and establish that women’s propensity to work in...

We examine the gender wage gap in Vietnam and show that a non-trivial part of the gap is associated with occupational sorting. We consider three explanations for why occupational sorting emerges. First, we explore whether occupational sorting is driven by gender differences in preferences for...

While a large body of literature has documented positive impacts of institutional childcare on maternal labor supply, thinner evidence is available on whether childcare can also nudge women into better jobs in developing countries. We evaluate the impact of public preschool expansion in...

Public workfare programs targeted at women have the potential to empower them economically by providing jobs. However, the impact of public workfare programs on gender-based violence is theoretically ambiguous. They may contribute to its reduction through lowering financial stress or improving a...

Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries by teaching basic financial and marketing practices, yet the impacts of such programs are mixed. We tested whether a psychology-based personal initiative training...

We exploit time and region variation in broadband availability in Georgian villages (settlements) to test whether high speed broadband is a skill-biased technological shock. We use an annual, nationally representative firm survey in Georgia from 2006 to 2014 and exploit the non-random phased...

One in three Indonesian women have experienced Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in their lifetime. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may further exacerbate the risks of GBV. First, additional stress due to health risks and economic uncertainty is likely to trigger conflict within family. Second,...

Migrant workers are a key part of Indonesia’s economy. The equivalent of almost 7 percent of Indonesia’s labor force, an estimated 9 million people, work overseas and in 2016, over IDR 159 trillion (US dollar 11.2 billion) was sent back to Indonesia in the form of remittances. However,...

In this brief, the authors explore whether lack of access to childcare is a constraint to female labor force participation (LFP) in Indonesia, a country where female LFP lags far below the regional average. Using household and labor force survey data, we find that low female LFP is linked to...