Working paper available through PEDL. Published article available here.
Abstract
This article considers market-level contributors to the well-documented gender profit gap among micro-entrepreneurs. Hardy and Kagy (2020) combine data from a garment-making firm census and market research survey in Ghana, uncovering a gender gap in the market-size-to-firm ratio and observing disproportionate self-reports of ‘not enough customers’ from female owners. They develop a simple model and discuss implications of potential gender differences in demand constraints. As experimental corroboration, the authors show that female-owned firms expand production and experience profit increases in response to random demand shocks, while male-owned firms do not. Nationally representative data echoes our experimental findings, showing more crowding in female-dominated industries.
In response to the Covid-19 crisis, 186 countries implemented direct cash transfers to households, and 181 introduced in-kind programs that lowered the cost of utilities such as electricity, water, transport, and mobile money.
Organizational and managerial structure plays an important role in the productivity difference among firms. However, studies that assessed the quality of firm management and its link with their performance are still scanty.
Research suggests that partisanship and social media usage correlate with belief in COVID-19 misinformation, and that misinformation shapes citizens’ willingness to get vaccinated.
Using data from the largest online job portal in Nigeria, we document: (a) gender differences in salary offers for jobs, and (b) the response of (a) to recessions.
This study tested different methods of surveying employees about workplace harassment and found that secure survey designs that ensure plausible deniability of responses to sensitive questions can help uncover harassment that would otherwise go unreported.
This paper examines the effect of the extreme drought, which is caused by El Niño on firms’ performance in food and beverage manufacturing sector in Ethiopia.