· In VoxDev, Nusrat Jahan from BRAC summarizes how evidence on female labor force participation applies in the Bangladesh context.” Several supply- and demand-side challenges impede Bangladeshi women’s labour market participation, many of which stem from entrenched gender norms and values…. What constitutes an “appropriate” job for women—what they can and should do—is dictated by social norms and values, limiting the demand for female labour in many job sectors…. BRAC’s Skills Development Programme (SDP), which provides vocational and entrepreneurship training to disadvantaged youths, struggles to retain female trainees in employment, especially after they get married. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) on a vocational skills training programme of SDP found that the impacts on female participants’ employment and earnings diminish over time, and married women experience smaller short-term impacts and larger long-term reductions than their unmarried counterparts…. the broader question of gender norms and values cannot be avoided if we want to see a significant, sustained improvement in women’s labour force participation”
· In Asterisk, Karthik Tadepalli highlights the importance of focusing on firm growth as a midway ground between narrow household interventions and macro policy, and provides some stylized facts about firms in developing countries – under the provocative title “want growth? Kill small businesses” – when the argument is more about the need to pursue interventions that help firms grow.
· A new USAID position paper summarizes the evidence for using more direct monetary transfers and “transfer plus” as a core part of development programming, making the case that “USAID should include direct monetary transfers to individuals, households, and microenterprises—a form of market-based assistance—as a core element of its development toolkit”. It then covers some best practices and guiding principles for doing so.
· Funding:
o The IPA/JPAL Displaced Livelihoods Initiative has a call for proposals on work on livelihoods for displaced populations and host communities. Short expressions of interest due November 20.
o The Agency Fund has an open call with a deadline of October 31, for work seeking to expand agency and improve lives in a scalable, cost-effective way.
· Calls for papers:
o The Humans Lacea Network has a call for papers for work on migration in Latin America. The conference will be held at ITAM in Mexico City on April 10-11, 2025. Deadline for papers is December 15, 2024. Full papers should be submitted in pdf format to humanslacea@gmail.com.
o The Sixth World Labor conference, hosted by SOLE, will be in Toronto June 27-29, 2025, with applications due December 1, 2024.
o The Urbanization and Development conference will be held in Cape Town June 11-12, 2025, with submission deadline November 8, 2024.
· Job Openings:
o For PhDs: The Development Research Group is hiring on the new PhD market: this year we have a particular focus on firms, macro, trade, and energy. Our JOE ad is here, with applications due November 15, 2024.
o For Pre-Docs: The University of Chicago's Development Innovation Lab, led by Faculty Director Michael Kremer, is hiring predoctoral researchers to be based in Chicago, India, and East Africa, starting in the summer of 2025. Application links to these and other open positions can be found on DIL's website.
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