Addressing Gender-Based Segregation through Information : Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in the Republic of Congo
This paper describes a randomized experiment that used a sample of men and women who were eligible for a vocational training program in the Republic of Congo to test the effect of providing information on trade-specific earnings on trade choice. Th...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/611661644422085910/Addressing-Gender-Based-Segregation-through-Information-Evidence-from-a-Randomized-Experiment-in-the-Republic-of-Congo http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36974 |
| Summary: | This paper describes a randomized
experiment that used a sample of men and women who were
eligible for a vocational training program in the Republic
of Congo to test the effect of providing information on
trade-specific earnings on trade choice. The analysis finds
that women are 28.6 percent more likely to apply to a
traditionally male- dominated trade when receiving this
information. Men and women are also both more likely to
apply to more lucrative trades. This may in part be driven
by the intervention filling an information gap. The analysis
suggests, however, that behavioral mechanisms, which make
trade-specific returns more salient in the decision process
of applicants, play an even bigger role. Indeed, there are
much larger treatment effects among women who have technical
knowledge and experience or male role models, even though
the information does not impact their expectations of
earnings in male-dominated trades. The treatment is thus
most effective among women who are already well positioned
to cross over into male-dominated trades and can give
greater weight to earning considerations when choosing a
trade. The results indicate that this low-cost intervention
can be a useful tool to encourage women to cross over to
more lucrative trades in which their presence has been
limited, and thereby contribute to reducing the gender gap
in earnings. There is also a high potential for
interventions that would pair information on returns and
trade exposure. |
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