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Employment Exposure: Employment and Wage Effects in Urban Malawi

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Abstract

Labor earnings are critical to exiting poverty. Understanding the returns to the determinants of wage growth is thus important. This paper examines the role of one driver of wage growth, acquired work experience. We exploit an experiment that randomized probabilistic job offers to estimate the employment and wage effects of short term jobs among young men in an urban low income setting. The results suggest large returns even among relatively well-educated yet still under-employed individuals. Individuals are more likely to access subsequent employment in the position for which they obtained work experience, suggesting a perceived return to the experience by other firms. Returns are largest among those scoring poorly on a literacy and numeracy test and those with existing sector specific evidence.

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  • Susan Godlonton, 2016. "Employment Exposure: Employment and Wage Effects in Urban Malawi," Department of Economics Working Papers 2016-09, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    • Handle: RePEc:wil:wileco:2016-09
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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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