This paper examines the labor market implications of a mandatory social insurance scheme introduced in Ethiopia in 2011 for private sector employees in the formal sector. We use firm-level panel data and exploit differences in pre-reform pension plans across firms to identify the effects of the...

In a number of countries, youth unemployment is a pressing economic and political concern. In India, 54 percent of the country's population of 1.21 billion is below the age of 25 and faces a high rate of (disguised) unemployment. To augment youth employment, the Government of India has launched...

Provisional estimates based on Census 2011 show that the sex ratio in the age group 0 to 6 in India continued to decline, from 927 in 2001 to 914 in 2011. Contrary to the national trend, the 0-6 sex ratio for Tamil Nadu has registered an increase for the first time since 1961, increasing from...

One of the four goals of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is the provision of a, “Strong social safety net for the vulnerable groups by providing a fall-back employment source, when other employment alternatives are scarce or inadequate” (Ministry of Rural Development, 2008, p....

Dominant development policy approaches recommend women’s employment on the grounds that it facilitates their empowerment, which in turn is believed to be instrumental in enhancing women’s well-being. However, empirical work on the relationship between women’s employment status and their...

A well-known demographic feature in several East and South Asian countries is the continuing decline in the proportion of girls to boys. In India, till recently, the skewed sex ratio was treated as a Northern and Western Indian phenomenon. However, analysis of the 2001 Census shows that some of...

This paper assesses insurance uptake in three community based health insurance (CBHI) schemes located in rural parts of two of India’s poorest states and offered through women’s self-help groups (SHGs). We examine what drives uptake, the degree of inclusive practices of the schemes, and the...

Little is known about perceptions of medical expenditure risks despite their presumed relevance to health insurance demand. This paper reports on a unique elicitation of subjective probabilities of medical expenditures from rural Ethiopians who are offered the opportunity to purchase health...

In recent years Poland has received substantial inflows of foreign direct investment. This paper combines detailed labour market data with industry data from the Polish manufacturing sector to examine the effects of foreign direct investment inflows on wages and wage growth. The empirical...

This paper assesses the relative economic welfare of women during the transition in Poland. After providing an account of gender differences in several labour market outcomes we analyse the male-female wage differential over the period 1993-97. We find that there is almost no change in the wage...