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We use a randomized field experiment to test the causal impact of short-term work experience on employment and school enrollment among disadvantaged, in-school youth in the Philippines. This experience leads to a 4.4 percentage point (79-percent) increase in employment 8 to 12 months later. While we find noaggregate increase in enrollment, we also do not find that the employment gains push youth out of school. Our results are most consistent with work experience serving as a signal of unobservable applicant quality, and these findings highlight the role of temporary work as a stepping-stone to employment for low-income youth.

The author of this article describes an intermediate economics course structured around outside readings, which include academic journal papers, policy briefs, and news articles. Students complete ...

Researchers make hundreds of decisions about data collection, preparation, and analysis in their research. We use a many‐analysts approach to measure the extent and impact of these decisions. Two published causal empirical results are replicated by seven replicators each. We find large differences in data preparation and analysis decisions, many of which would not likely be reported in a publication. No two replicators reported the same sample size. Statistical significance varied across replications, and for one of the studies the effect's sign varied as well. The standard deviation of estimates across replications was 3-4 times the mean reported standard error.

This paper documents a strong correlation between fertility and superstition among the Chinese ethnic diaspora in Malaysia and examines the effect of this Chinese adherence to their cultura...

This paper examines how individuals select into job search in terms of their individual qualifications and perceptions and measures how recruiting additional applicants with a modest job-search subsidy affects selection. I use experimental evidence to examine individuals’ decisions to attend and participate in a job fair. Thirteen percent of invited but unsubsidized respondents attend the job fair, and they are positively selected from the overall distribution of respondents. While the subsidy attracts those who are less qualified and less confident in their ability to find work abroad, the least qualified do not search intensively. Although the subsidy does not lead to any additional offers, it induces individuals with a high degree of uncertainty about their likelihood of job-finding to apply with recruitment agencies. These results demonstrate the importance of imperfect information about the returns to search and highlight how reducing search costs can increase search effort among those most uncertain about their prospects.

Significant income gains from migrating from poorer to richer countries have motivated unilateral (source-country) policies facilitating labor emigration. However, their effectiveness is unknown. The authors conducted a large-scale randomized experiment in the Philippines testing the impact of unilaterally facilitating international labor migration. The most intensive treatment doubled the rate of job offers but had no identifiable effect on international labor migration. Even the highest overseas job-search rate that was induced (22 percent) falls far short of the share initially expressing interest in migrating (34 percent). The paper concludes that unilateral migration facilitation will at most induce a trickle, not a flood, of additional emigration.

We conduct a randomized resume audit study, simultaneously examining the returns to education, experience, and physical attractiveness among young workers applying for entry-level, formal s...

I estimate the causal impact of attending a job fair on employment outcomes and labor market perceptions, using a randomized encouragement design to induce individuals in the rural Philippines to attend a nearby job fair for domestic and overseas work. Attending a job fair matters: though it does not facilitate direct matches with a job-fair employer, attendance leads to a large increase in reported formal sector employment and in the likelihood of looking for any work outside the region in the months following the job fair. Several overseas recruitment agencies participated in the job fair, and attendance affects individuals' overseas labor market perceptions but does not encourage them to take steps to migrate. These results suggest that job fairs can be important tools for encouraging individuals to move to the formal sector and for conveying information about labor market prospects.