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...

Agriculture is the predominant economic activity in Timor-Leste, with more than 80 percent of households engaged in at least minor farming work, with 70 percent of farmers over the age of 401. Despite its leading role in the livelihoods of Timorese households, the agricultural sector has not...

Indonesian secondary students perform worse academically than their peers in other countries, especially boys. In the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, Indonesia ranked among the worse of the 72 participating countries. More than half of 15-year-olds could read a...

Female labor force participation (FLFP) in Indonesia lags behind other countries in the region. Building on previous work that shows that unmet childcare needs are associated with low FLFP in Indonesia, here, we look at the impact of childcare availability on FLFP. The findings suggest that an...

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...

Improving women’s economic status has been presented in theory as a protective mechanism against intimate partner violence. Using panel data from 2011–16 for the most populous 20 percent of municipalities in Brazil, the analysis tests if the gender wage gap is causally associated with three...

This paper evaluates the long-term impacts of the national conditional cash transfer program in the Philippines on beneficiaries who were exposed to it during a relatively short but potentially critical period of transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. The paper estimates the impacts of the...

The literature lends empirical support for the idea that improvements to transport infrastructure lead to economic development. How and why the benefits of better transport differ between genders is less clear. This paper attempts to answer this question by combining a nonexperimental impact...

At 50.9 percent, female labor force participation in Indonesia is far below the regional average of 60.8 percent. Is it being hindered by a lack of affordable childcare services in the country? This paper exploits the joint variations in preschool age eligibility and access to preschool across...

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...