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enGENDER IMPACT: Increasing Economic Opportunities


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Globally, women represent about half the world’s population, but only 41 percent of the total formal sector workforce. Trends suggest that gains in women’s labor force participation worldwide over the last few decades have been small and slow, still hovering around 51 percent globally, and as low as 21 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. Moreover, labor force participation rates by themselves mask important differences in how and when women and men participate in the world of work.

Gender gaps persist in terms of the types of jobs that women and men have, how much they are paid, and the extent of unpaid work, with significant regional variation as well. Whether we consider entrepreneurs, employees, or farmers, there are many constraints to women’s work. As a result, interventions can take many different approaches to remove constraints and accelerate women’s ability to participate and succeed in the world of work—including in industries and occupations that are dominated by men.

The World Bank Group has long been a leader in innovation and evaluation related to women’s work and earnings. This includes, among many other things, private sector work by the International Finance Corporation to support women in business, and the World Bank’s work on social protection and labor and in strengthening adolescent girls’ transition from school to work.


Relevant outcomes: income; wages; earnings; consumption; labor force participation; job performance; productivity; firm growth; access to credit, land, savings and property; savings; entrepreneurship; investment


 

IE Title & Author(s)

Country

Gender Outcome(s)

Intervention Category

5 Years in Juntos: New Evidence on the Program's Short and Long-Term Impacts
Perova & Vakis

Peru

Consumption, income, use of healthcare services, child labor, school enrollment, school attendance

Cash Transfer

AIDS treatment and intrahousehold resource allocation: Children's nutrition andschooling in Kenya
Zivin, et al.

Kenya

Reproductive Health, school attendance, labor force participation, nutrition

Antiretroviral Treatment

Are Cash Transfers Made to Women Spent Like Other Sources of Income?
Schady & Rosero

Ecuador

Nutrition, intrahousehold bargaining, consumption

Cash Transfer

Are Women More Credit Constrained? Experimental Evidence on Gender and Microenterprise Returns
De Mel, et al.

Sri Lanka

Women's labor force participation, productivity, access to credit

Cash Transfer

Assisting the Transition from Workfare to Work: A Randomized Experiment
Galasso, et al.

Argentina

Female labor force participation, wages

Cash Transfer, Training

Building Women's Economic and Social Empowerment Through Enterprise An Experimental Assessment of the Women's Income Generating Support (WINGS) Program in Uganda
Blattman, et al.

Uganda

Gender disaggregated earnings, savings, consumption, psychological agency, domestic violence

Cash Transfer

Business Training and Female Enterprise Start-up, Growth, and Dynamics Experimental Evidence from Sri Lanka
De Mel, et al.

Sri Lanka

Women's vocational knowledge and skills, job performance, property, access to credit, earnings

Training

Can Conditional Cash Transfer Programs Serve as Safety Nets in Keeping Children at School and From Working when Exposed to Shocks?
De Janvry, et al.

Mexico

Gender disaggregated school enrollment, child labor

Cash Transfer

Cash Transfers, Behavioral Changes, and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment
Macours, et al.

Nicaragua

Children's Nutrition, access to healthcare, cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, Women's labor force participation, psychological agency

Cash Transfer

Causal effect of health on labor market outcomes: Evidence from a random assignment iron supplementation intervention
Thomas, et al.

Indonesia

Gender disaggregated nutrition, psychological agency, labor force participation, productivity

Iron Supplements

Changing Households' Investment and Aspirations through Social Interactions: Evidence from a randomized transfer program
Macours & Vakis

Nicaragua

Women's Aspirations, motivation, school attendance, income, property

Cash Transfer

Combining Longitudinal Household and Community Surveys for Evaluation of Social Transfers: infrastructure rehabilitation projects in rural Georgia
Lokshin & Yemtsov

Georgia

Female labor force participation, school enrollment, school attendance, health risks

Infrastructure Projects

Community Programs and Women's Participation: The Chinese Experience
Coady, et al.

China

Gender disaggregated income, aspirations

Collective Action

Community-Based Reintegration in Aceh: Assessing the Impacts of BRA-KDP
Barron, et al.

Indonesia

Income, participation and voice in the community

Community Driven Development

Community-Driven Reconstruction in Lofa County Impact Assessment
Fearon, et al.

Liberia

Participation and voice in community, income

Community Driven Development

Conditional Cash Transfers, Adult Work Incentives, and Poverty
Skoufias & Di Maro

Mexico

Gender disaggregated labor force participation, income

Cash Transfer

Coping with the "Coffee Crisis" in Central America: The Role of the Nicaraguan Red de Proteccion Social
Maluccio

Nicaragua

Gender disaggregated consumption, labor force participation

Cash Transfer

Credit Constraints, Occupational Choice and the Process of Development: Long Run Evidence from Cash Transfers in Uganda
Blattman, et al.

Uganda

Vocational knowledge or skills, labor force participation, productivity, participation or voice in community

Cash Transfer

Demand versus Returns? Pro-Poor Targeting of Business Grants and Vocational Skills Training
Macours, et al.

Nicaragua

Female income, labor force participation, wages, access to credit

Training, Cash Transfer

Does a Picture Paint a Thousand Words? Evidence from a Microcredit Marketing Experiment
Gine, et al.

Pakistan

Gender disaggregated access to credit, psychological agency

Microfinance, information intervention

Does Community Driven Development Work? Evidence from Senegal
Arcand & Bassole

Senegal

Health of women, nutrition, consumption, participation or having a voice in the community

Community Driven Development

Does Demand or Supply Constrain Investments in Education? Evidence from Garment Sector Jobs in Bangladesh
Health & Mobarak

Bangladesh

Female school attendance, school enrollment

Factories

Does it pay firms to register for taxes? The Impact of formality on firm profitability
Mckenzie, et al.

Bolivia

Gender disaggregated productivity

Firm Formalization

Does Management Matter? Evidence from India
Bloom, et al.

India

Productivity of male family members

Business Training

Economic Impacts of Professional Training in the Informal Sector: The Case of the Labor Force Training Program in Cote d'Ivoire 
Verner & Verner

Cote d'Ivoire

Gender disaggregated productivity

Vocational Training

Employment Generation In Rural Africa: Mid-Term Results from an Experimental Evaluation of the Youth Opportunities Program in Northern Uganda
Blattman, et al.

Uganda

Gender disaggregated income, consumption, labor force participation, participation or voice in community, psychological agency

Cash Transfer

Entitled to Work: Urban Property Rights and Labor Supply in Peru
Field

Peru

Property, labor force participation

Land Titling

Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Tunisia
Premand, et al.

Tunisia

Gender disaggregated outcomes: entrepreneurship, labor force participation, vocational knowledge or skills, access to credit, aspirations, non-cognitive skills

Training

Environmental and Gender Impacts of Land Tenure Regularization in Africa: Pilot Evidence from Rwanda
Ali, et al.

Rwanda

Women's property, investment

Land Rights

Estimating the Benefit Incidence of an Antipoverty Program by Propensity Score Matching
Jalan & Ravallion

Argentina

Gender disaggregated income

Cash Transfer

From the Group Up: Impacts of a Pro-Poor Community Driven Development Project in Nigeria
Nkonya, et al.

Nigeria

Property, productivity, participation or voice in community

Agricultural Development

Gender Bias in Intrahousehold Allocation: Evidence from an Unintentional Experiment
Braido, et al.

Brazil

Consumption, intrahousehold decision-making

Cash Transfer

Group Diversity and the Impacts on Female Participants: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Income Generating Networks in India
Koolwal

India

Savings, access to credit, intrahousehold decision making

Community Development

Group versus Individual Liability: Long Term Evidence from Philippine Microcredit Lending Groups
Gine & Karlan

Philippines

Women's access to credit

Microfinance

Harnessing Emotional Connections to Improve Financial Decisions: Evaluating the Impact of Financial Education in Mainstream Media
Berg & Zia

South Africa

Gender disaggregated access to credit, savings

Information Intervention

Impact of Social Fund on the Welfare of Rural Households: Evidence from Nepal Poverty Alleviation Fund
Parajuli, et al.

Nepal

Participation or voice in the community, consumption

Community Driven Development

Impacts of an Early Stage Education Intervention on Students' Learning Achievement: Evidence from the Philippines
Yamauchi , et al.

Philippines

Gender disaggregated outcomes: School attainment, wages, migration

Education

Impacts of Land Certification on Tenure Security, Investment, and Land Market Participation: Evidence from Ethiopia
Deininger, et al.

Ethiopia

Women's owned property, investment

Land Titling

Improving Nutrition through Community Growth Promotion: Longitudinal Study of the Nutrition and Early Child Development Program in Uganda
Alderman

Uganda

Gender disaggregated nutrition, income

Early Childhood Development, Deworming

Insurance, credit, and technology adoption: Field experimental evidence from Malawi
Gine & Yang

Malawi

Gender disaggregated access to credit

Credit and insurance

Investing Cash Transfers to Raise Long Term Living Standards
Gertler, et al.

Mexico

Investment, consumption

Cash Transfer

Labor Market Returns to Early Childhood Stimulation: a 20-Year Follow-up to the Jamaica Study
Gertler, et al.

Jamaica

Gender disaggregated income, labor force participation, school attainment, cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills

Preschool

Measuring the Effect of a Community-level Program on Women's Empowerment Outcomes: Evidence from India
Kandpal, et al.

India

Female labor force participation, intrahousehold bargaining, participation or voice in community

Community Development

One-Time Transfers of Cash or Capital Have Long-Lasting Effects on Microenterprises in Sri Lanka
De Mel, et al.

Sri Lanka

Productivity, intrahousehold decision making

Cash Transfer

Prices or Knowledge? What Drives Demand for Financial Services in Emerging Markets?
Cole, et al.

Indonesia

Gender disaggregated access to credit, savings

Training

Reintegrating and Employing High Risk Youth in Liberia: Lessons from a randomized evaluation of a Landmine Action an agricultural training program for ex-combatants
Blattman & Annan

Liberia

Labor force participation, participation or voice in the community

Training

Returns to Capital in Microenterprises: Evidence from a Field Experiment
De Mel, et al.

Sri Lanka

Gender disaggregated productivity

Cash Transfer

Social Protection in a Crisis: Argentina's Plan Jefes y Jefas
Galasso & Ravallion

Argentina

Female labor force participation, income

Cash Transfer

Soft Skills or Hard Cash? The Impact of Training and Wage Subsidy Programs on Female Youth Employment in Jordan
Groh, et al.

Jordan

Female labor force participation, non-cognitive skills, aspirations, psychological agency

Training, Cash Transfer

Split Decisions: Family Finance When a Policy Discontinuity Allocates Overseas Work
Clemens & Tiongson

Philippines

Gender Disaggregated: consumption, access to healthcare, property, savings, school performance, intrahousehold bargaining

Migration Permits

The Economic Impact of AIDS Treatment: Labor Supply in Western Kenya
Thirumurthy, et al.

Kenya

Reproductive health, female labor force participation

Antiretroviral Treatment

The Impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Consumption in Colombia
Attanasio & Mesnard

Colombia

Consumption, nutrition after transfers to a female

Cash Transfer

The Impact of Access to Free Childcare on Women's Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Low-income Neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro
Paes de Barros, et al.

Brazil

Women's labor force participation

Preschool

The Impact of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program and its Linkages
Gilligan, et al.

Ethiopia

Gender disaggregated nutrition, access to credit, employment

Cash Transfers

The Impact of Providing Psycho-Social Support to Indigent Families and Increasing their Access to Social Services: Evaluating Chile Solidario
Carneiro, et al.

Chile

Gender disaggregated labor force participation, psychological agency

Social Support

The Impacts of Cash and In-Kind Transfers on Consumption and Labor Supply
Skoufias, et al.

Mexico

Gender disaggregated productivity, consumption

Cash Transfer

The Impacts of International Migration on Remaining Household Members: Omnibus Results from a Migration Lottery Program
Gibson, et al.

Tonga

Gender disaggregated income, property, nutrition, labor force participation

Migration

The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh
Khandker, et al.

Bangladesh

Gender disaggregated labor force participation, school attendance

Infrastructure

Time Allocation in Rural Households: The Indirect Effects of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs
Hasan

Pakistan

Gender norms, labor force participation

Cash Transfer

Two-name Land Use Certificates and Gender Inequality: An Empirical Investigation for Vietnam
Trung, et al.

Vietnam

Gender disaggregated income, investment, labor force participation, intrahousehold bargaining

Land Titling

Vocational Education Voucher Delivery and Labor Market Returns: A Randomized Evaluation Among Kenyan Youth
Hicks, et al.

Kenya

Gender disaggregated vocational training, gender norms

Training

Welfare impacts of rural electrification: evidence from Vietnam
Khandker, et al.

Vietnam

Gender disaggregated school attendance, gender disaggregated property

Infrastructure

What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment
Bertrand, et al.

South Africa

Gender disaggregated access to credit

Microfinance

When is Capital Enough to Get Female Enterprises Growing? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Ghana
Woodruff, et al.

Ghana

Gender disaggregated productivity, consumption

Cash Transfer

Who You Train Matters Identifying Complementary Effects of Financial Education on Migrant Households
Doi, et al.

Indonesia

Female vocational knowledge or skills, access to credit

Training

Why is Voluntary Financial Education So Unpopular? Experimental Evidence from Mexico
Bruhn, et al.

Mexico

Access to credit, savings

Financial Literacy Training

Women's Inheritance Rights and Intergenerational Transmission of Resources in India
Deininger, et al.

India

Women's owned property, gender disaggregated school attainment

Legal Reform

 

 

 

 



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