Anonymity of distance? Job search and labour market exclusion in a growing African city

Abebe, Girum, Caria, Stefano, Fafchamps, Marcel, Falco, Paolo, Franklin, Simon and Quinn, Simon (2017) Anonymity of distance? Job search and labour market exclusion in a growing African city. SERC Discussion Papers (SERCDP224). Spatial Economics Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

Do obstacles to job search contribute to labour market exclusion in developing countries? To answer this question, we contrast two very different interventions, designed to alleviate spatial and informational constraints for unemployed youth in a congested African city: a transport subsidy and a job-application workshop. Both treatments have large positive effects on the probability of finding stable and formal jobs. Neither treatment has a significant average effect on the overall probability of employment, but we detect a sizeable increase in earnings and employment rates among the most disadvantaged job-seekers. Our results highlight the importance of job-search constraints as mechanisms for exclusion of the most disadvantaged. They also show that, if targeted well, low-cost interventions can have large impacts, improving equity in the labour market

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/
Additional Information:	© 2017 The Authors
Divisions:	Spatial Economics Research Centre Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
JEL classification:	J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J22 - Time Allocation and Labor Supply J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies > J61 - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies > J64 - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting > M5 - Personnel Economics > M53 - Training O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O18 - Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2018 17:25
Last Modified:	15 Sep 2023 23:43
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/86573

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