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Employment Exposure: Employment and Wage Effects in Urban Malawi

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  • Susan Godlonton

Abstract

Labor earnings are critical to exiting poverty; thus, understanding the returns to the determinants of wage growth is important. We examine one important driver of wage growth: acquired work experience, using an experiment that randomized probabilistic job offers to estimate the employment and wage effects of short-term jobs among young men in a low-income urban setting. The results suggest large returns even among relatively well-educated yet still underemployed individuals. Returns are largest among those scoring poorly on a literacy and numeracy test. Suggestive evidence points to exposure to a broader social job network as a likely driver for the returns.

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  • Susan Godlonton, 2020. "Employment Exposure: Employment and Wage Effects in Urban Malawi," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(2), pages 471-506.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/700635
    DOI: 10.1086/700635
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    Cited by:

    1. Fox,Louise & Kaul,Upaasna, 2018. "The evidence is in : how should youth employment programs in low-income countries be designed ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8500, The World Bank.
    2. Ambler, Kate & Godlonton, Susan, 2021. "Earned and unearned income: Experimental evidence on expenditures and labor supply in Malawi," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 33-44.

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