Office of the Chief Economist, Africa Region

The World Bank, in collaboration with George Washington University (GWU) and the University of Virginia (UVA), hosted the 2nd World Bank-GWU-UVA Conference on “The Economics of Sustainable Development.”

This event brought together academics and development economics practitioners to present and discuss pressing questions relating to sustainable development, a theme central to the World Bank’s mission of tackling poverty on a livable planet.

Using data from the largest online job portal in Nigeria, the speaker will discuss the (a) gender differences in salary offers for jobs, and (b) the response of (a) to recessions. Jobs in industries where the number of job applicants skews female offer lower starting salaries than jobs in industries where applicants skew male. During Nigeria’s 2016 recession, overall job applications rose, but applications to jobs in industries that skew male increased more than applications to jobs in industries that skew female. Salary offers fell sharply for jobs in male-skewed industries compared to female-skewed industries. In accordance with this relative shift in applications, in 2016, the salary-offer gender gap almost disappeared.