This paper explores informality in a high income country among women who, at least legally, can take on formal jobs. Specifically, we examine the determinants of paid domestic work in Israel through the lens of existing theoretical frameworks of informality. Using rich administrative data, we...

We examine how parental and local factors shape the gender pay gap between daughters and sons. Maternal labor market attachment significantly reduces gender disparities as it increases daughters' earnings in adulthood relative to that of sons. We find that maternal employment has minimal effects...

The Asian Development Bank has adopted internal practices aligned with its commitment to help its members achieve gender equality. This study analyzes panel data on its staff spanning 2000-2022 to understand gender differences in salaries and career paths of its three staff groups. A...

The usefulness of G2P payments for supporting account activity as part of financial inclusion has been well-recognised in the literature. However, not much empirical evidence is available to support this contention. To inform the debate, the study uses repeated cross-sectional survey data for...

Despite advancements in renewable energy and technological innovation, significant gaps remain in the empirical literature, especially on gender-specific employment and wages. Coupling with the growing global shift towards renewable energy and technological innovation, motivated by the need to...

Relying on a reform that increased parental leave generosity, we estimate workplace peer effects in the use of leave, with a focus on fathers. Coworker fathers are more likely to take parental leave when exposed to a higher share of peer fathers, who are exogenously affected by the reform. This...

This report explores the key challenges to women's employment in the transport sector and provides recommendations for how stakeholders can tackle gender gaps and increase women's representation in the workforce, with a particular focus on skilled technical and managerial roles. It offers an...

This note provides guidance for policymakers, World Bank country teams, and development practitioners to enhance the quality, affordability, and sustainability of home-based childcare (HBC) services in low-income settings. It outlines a comprehensive approach to recognizing HBC as a public good...

This paper assesses the structure and quality of self-employment in India over a decade. India, historically, has had a much larger share of workers who are self-employed and a smaller proportion of wage and salaried workers. This structure of labour force participation has not shifted much in...

How do firms adjust their labor demand when a female employee takes temporary leave after childbirth? Using Austrian administrative data, we compare firms with and without a birth event and exploit policy reforms that significantly altered leave durations. We find that (i) firms adjust hiring,...

Parental caregiving responsibilities can disrupt paid work, contributing to persistent gender inequalities in employment and earnings. Using Australian employer-employee linked data and a dynamic difference-in-differences approach, this study examines how workplace environments shape the impacts...

During the first half of the twentieth century, many US states enacted laws restricting women's labor market opportunities, including maximum hours restrictions, minimum wage laws, and night-shift bans. The era of so-called protective labor laws came to an end in the 1960s as a result of civil...

The gender wage gap rises with experience. To what extent do firm policies mediate this rise? We use administrative data from Italy to identify workers' first jobs and compute wage growth over the next 5 years. We then decompose the contribution of first employers to the rise in the gender wage...

Macroeconomics is arguably the most male-dominated field within the discipline of economics. Since the mid-1990s, feminist economists have thoroughly and meticulously challenged this field through empirical and theoretical analyses and proposed alternative starting points, frameworks, and...

Most households in rural Africa are involved in smallholder farming, but off-farm employment is an important additional income source for many. Previous research has analyzed links between off-farm employment and wellbeing, but mostly at the household level, not considering that household...

Labour market discrimination based on gender identity remains a significant yet understudied phenomenon. This paper examines the labour market experiences of trans and nonbinary individuals, focusing on how gender transition intersects with career development, institutional support, and labour...

Gender segregation in higher education persists across developed countries and is paradoxically stronger in wealthier, more gender-equal societies. Using data from over 500,000 children across 37 Western countries, we show that this segregation has roots in childhood. We document a strong...

Models of female labor supply routinely assume that women have accurate expectations about post-birth employment, but little is known about whether this assumption holds. We use a 2019 state-contingent survey of 11,000 Danish women linked to administrative data to compare pre-birth beliefs to...

We propose a unified economic model of sexual exchanges that treats both unpaid and paid sex as outcomes of individual time allocation decisions. Departing from existing literature that separates sex into marital relations or specialized markets, the model incorporates relational skills, gender...

This letter contributes to the literature on gender disparities in professional life by exploring how men and women perceive the impact of parenthood on career outcomes. It does so through the lens of perceived employer-given opportunities ("chances") and perceived own career-related behaviour...

This article explores how an employee's choice to work from home (WFH) influences his or her spouse's outcomes. Drawing on the specific features of the French institutions, we show that a spouse's switch to WFH leads to a sharp increase in the probability that his or her partner will also switch...

We develop a rational choice model of sexual exchange that unifies marriage and paid sex, explaining two key facts: the gendered segregation of sex markets and the decline in sexual activity and fertility. Individuals choose whether to engage in paid or unpaid sex based on income, human capital,...

Conducting a nationally representative survey of 2,500 working parents between Mother's and Father's Day of 2020, we examine gender differences in the childcare shock during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on demographic, household, and labor market factors, we document gender differences in time...