Labour market frictions

Women’s work outside the home (WWOH) rate in Pakistan is among the lowest in the world. This is partly due to employer’s having incorrect information and beliefs about women’s ability to carry out work (a demand-side information constraint) and social stigma preventing women and their families from seeking jobs related information (a supply-side information constraint).

In this project, the research team conducts surveys of approximately 2,200 HR managers at garment factories in Gazipur, Savar, and Narayanganj, the three major garments-producing clusters around peri-urban Dhaka, to create a novel set of stylized facts about vacancies and hiring practices across firms and within firms over time.

This study will test labour demand and labour supply-side explanations as to why firms gender-segregate, while also testing several firm-level policy interventions that could ease these frictions.

This project aims to research the extent to which challenges in finding and hiring workers may hinder firms' growth.