Suchergebnisse

AbstractGender gaps in labor force participation in developing countries persist despite income growth or structural change. We assess this persistence across economic geographies within countries, focusing on youth employment in off‐farm wage jobs. We combine household survey data from 12 developing countries with geospatial data on population density. The gender gap increases with connectivity from rural to peri‐urban areas and disappears in high‐density urban areas. In non‐rural areas, child dependency does not constrain young women, and secondary education improves their access to off‐farm jobs. The gender gap persists for married young women independent of connectivity improvements, indicating social norm constraints.

AbstractThis paper aims at identifying whether and how sustainable land management practices and livelihood diversification strategies have contributed to moderating the impacts of the El Niño-related drought in Zambia. This is done using a specifically designed survey called the El Niño Impact Assessment Survey, which is combined with the Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Surveys, as well as high resolution rainfall data at the ward level over 34 years. This unique panel data set allows us to control for the time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity to understand the impacts of shocks like El Niño, which are expected to become more frequent and severe as a result of climate change. We find that maize yields were substantially reduced and that household incomes were only partially protected from the shock thanks to diversification strategies. Mechanical erosion control measures and livestock diversification emerge as the only strategies that provided yield and income benefits under weather shock.