Projects

In this project, Juan Pablo Rud and I investigate the effect of high public sector wage premium and other characteristics on wages and productivity in the private sector in developing countries. We have produced a detailed empirical description of labour market outcomes in poor economies, focusing on the difference between the private and public sectors (earnings, wages' dispersion, sector sizes, workers' mobility) based on individual-level data for a number of Sub-Saharan African countries. 

This project is funded by Structural Transformation and Economic Growth (STEG) programme research grant SRG 33.

Link to project website.

This main goal of this project is to study the gender pay gap and women's employment in low-income countries (LIC), with the particular focus on the importance of family composition and on the role of the public sector. The vast majority of workers in low-income countries (LIC) are engaged in low-productivity self-employment or unpaid family work. This type work is more common among women; moreover, even when working for a wage, women face substantially lower earnings than men with similar characteristics. However, this situation is very different in the public sector - the gender pay gap there is lower and the share of female employment is higher, especially among married women. Jobs in the public sector also offer other amenities, such as security and flexibility, making them more attractive to women with children.

This is a project funded by the IZA/FCDO Programme on Gender, Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries (G²LM|LIC). See here for more information.

The research team consists of Ija Trapeznikova, Ahu Gemici and Juan Pablo Rud. We are delighted to welcome Pengzhan Qian from Queen Mary University of London, who will join this project as a postdoctoral fellow (starting 1 July 2024).