This Focus Note includes illustrative examples from successful initiatives around the world that demonstrate the potential of these strategies—from digital financial solutions that respect privacy concerns to data-driven approaches that challenge institutional biases. Development actors,...

This paper develops a conceptual framework to analyze how gendered social norms mediate the effects of legal frameworks on women’s economic empowerment. Using the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law domains, Safety, Mobility, Work, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Childcare, Entrepreneurship,...

We conducted a within-subject laboratory experiment in which participants decided whether to experience physical discomfort for charity, with or without additional personal compensation. Acceptance decreased with greater discomfort and increased with both larger charitable donations and personal...

This paper investigates the causal impact of free primary education (FPE) on fertility decisions among parents in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the interplay between the policy, intra-household bargaining, and cultural norms. Using Demographic and Health Survey data and exploiting the...

Democratic societies depend on citizens following rules even when those rules are set by political opponents. Rising polarization may threaten this behavior. We test the impact of polarization on rule compliance in the United States across three pre-registered waves (May and November 2024; April 2025; n...

Forest protection contributes to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. Yet negative income shocks can induce local forest users to increase extraction in order to cope with economic hardship. We study how social norms shape collaborative forest management when communities face...

We study how adolescents' second-order beliefs about their parents' occupational preferences shape gendered career aspirations. In a consequential early-career choice setting, we combine a parental choice experiment with a randomized salience intervention among students. Parents give gendered...

Hiring discrimination against candidates from ethnocultural minority groups is a persistent concern in contemporary labour markets. This study examines how professional recruiters evaluate fictitious job applicants with profiles that systematically vary in signals that form ethnocultural...

Do earthquakes strengthen social cohesion or undermine it? While some theories suggest they strengthen social bonds, others suggest they lead to social disintegration. We add to the limited causal evidence on this phenomenon using the 2012 Northern Italy earthquake, and exploit a unique dataset...

In 2019 Canada's second-largest province introduced a selective ban on religious clothing in the public service as part of a broader effort to promote secularism in the public sphere. Using novel survey data we find evidence of spillovers onto labour force participation and religious expression...

Private equity, an industry characterized by high-stake investments and complex contractual arrangements, operates almost entirely outside of courts. Despite the substantial financial stakes involved - billions of dollars locked in for years - and the potential for fiduciary conflicts,...

We examine the role of household-level social norms regarding women's mobility in determining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's employment. The shock of the pandemic containment measures, such as India's nationwide lockdown caused both supply- and demandside disruptions. Nationally...

In Sub-Saharan Africa, multiple interrelated challenges hinder the potential of girls and young women. Girls and women are more likely to live in poverty than men, have less access to education and health services, and rarely benefit from productive economic opportunities. Restrictive social...

This paper exploits a unique norm‑shifting setting - a German pension reform that equalized retirement ages across genders - to examine how old‑age employment propagates through workplace networks. The reform raised women's earliest claiming age from 60 to 63 for cohorts born in 1952 onward....

How do gender identity and norms relate to happiness? This paper takes advantage of the 2024 European Social Survey, which asks respondents to report their feelings of femininity and masculinity, and studies the relationships between these self-assessments, (non-)conformity to gender norms, and...

The paper examines the association between fertility and female wage employment in Kenya using nationally representative cross-sectional data collected by the Kenya's National Bureau of Statistics, a government-owned statistical organization. Two findings emerge from our analysis. The first...

The crucial importance of institutions for economic and social development has become part of the conventional wisdom in economics. In recent years, economists have become particularly interested in the potential role of informal institutions but measuring them remains a serious challenge. This...

Attitudes toward the roles of women and men in society have become more egalitarian in Germany and most countries around the world since World War II. Recently, however, this process has slowed significantly, even reversing in some places. In most countries, the attitudes of the youngest ten age...

This paper investigates the historical origins of female genital cutting (FGC). We test the historical hypothesis that FGC is associated with the Red Sea route of the African slave trade, where women were typically sold as concubines in the Middle East and infibulation was used as a means to...

This paper examines the causal effect of public discourse in one or both sides of the market on overall market socially responsible behavior. In a laboratory setting, we vary whether firms and/or consumers participate in a public discussion before trading begins. When both sides take part, the...

Although studies have evaluated the costs of violating the male breadwinner norm, little is known about the mental health consequences, particularly for common conditions such as depression and anxiety. We explore this issue using Australian national administrative tax and healthcare records. We...

We examine the empirical relationship between exposure to disasters and tightness of social norms, focusing on the practice of female genital cutting (FGC) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Social norms tightness refers to the extent to which cultural groups enforce adherence to norms and punish...

Electoral accountability is a cornerstone of democratic governance, yet whether voters effectively punish corruption remains theoretically and empirically contested. While canonical models predict that corruption revelations reduce incumbent support, strategic voting considerations-especially...