Publications

November 2020
Article

Tackling Youth Unemployment: Evidence from a Labor Market Experiment in Uganda

By: Livia Alfonsi, Oriana Bandiera, Vittorio Bassi, Robin Burgess, Imran Rasul, Munshi Sulaiman and Anna Vitali

We design a labor market experiment to compare demand- and supply-side policies to tackle youth unemployment, a key issue in low-income countries. The experiment tracks 1700 workers and 1500 firms over four years to compare the effect of offering workers either... View Details

Keywords: Employment; Training; Competency and Skills; Developing Countries and Economies

2023
Working Paper

Labor Reactions to Credit Deterioration: Evidence from LinkedIn Activity

We provide the first analysis of workers’ on-the-job networking activity following their firm’s credit deterioration. Using high-frequency networking on LinkedIn, we show that workers initiate more connections immediately following adverse credit shocks. We propose a... View Details

Article

Informal Family Insurance and the Design of the Welfare State

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

We study unemployment benefit provision when the family also provides social insurance. In the benchmark case, more generous State transfers crowd out family risk-sharing one-for-one. An extension gives the State an advantage in enforcing transfers through taxes... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Design; Welfare

2017
Working Paper

The Decline of Big-Bank Lending to Small Business: Dynamic Impacts on Local Credit and Labor Markets

By: Brian S. Chen, Samuel G. Hanson and Jeremy C. Stein

Small business lending by the four largest banks fell sharply relative to others in 2008 and remained depressed through 2014. We explore the dynamic adjustment process following this credit supply shock. In counties where the largest banks had a high market share, the... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; System Shocks; Credit; Labor; United States

17 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

Many Small-Business Employees May Be Close to Losing Health Insurance

A health insurance crisis may be looming for employees of small businesses, with many firms struggling to cover their share of these costs, new research from Harvard Business School finds. Nearly one-third of employers surveyed weren’t... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Health

2025
Working Paper

Turning Away from the State: Trade Shocks and Informal Insurance in Brazil

By: Paula Rettl

How does economic globalization affect vote choices? Conventional wisdom holds that voters who lose from economic integration support parties that propose expanding the welfare state. However, in the Global South, where the state is frequently weak or under-resourced,... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Globalized Economies and Regions; Governance; Government Administration; Political Elections; Voting; Latin America; Brazil; South America

SSRN

31 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

Can a ‘Basic Bundle’ of Health Insurance Cure Coverage Gaps and Spur Innovation?

By the early 1980s, several high-income countries—including Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand—had universal health insurance covering 100 percent of the population. Meanwhile, 40 years later, the United... View Details

Keywords: by Kasandra Brabaw; Insurance; Insurance

1985
Chapter

Implicit Labor Contracts Viewed as Options: A Discussion of 'Insurance Aspects of Pensions'

By: Robert C. Merton

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Contracts; Labor and Management Relations; Insurance

December 2017
Case

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Sarah Mehta

It is July 2017, and Dr. Nteranya Sanginga, the director general of the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), is making progress toward two of his primary strategic objectives for the nonprofit research Institute: 1) to scale the impact... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Technologies; Youth Unemployment; Innovation In Nonprofits; Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Cash Flow; Labor; Employment; Commercialization; Problems and Challenges; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa; Nigeria

Educators

Purchase

24 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Cutting Jobless Aid Isn't the Answer to Worker Shortages

About half of US states—mostly run by Republican governors—cut off extended unemployment benefits months before the federal government was planning to end them on Labor Day last year, convinced workers would... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

July–August 2021
Article

Lowering the Bar? External Conditions, Opportunity Costs, and High-Tech Startup Outcomes

By: Annamaria Conti and Maria P. Roche

We assess the heterogeneous impact of economic downturns on individuals’ decisions to bring high-technology ideas to the market in the form of new ventures. We thereby examine how worsening labor market conditions influence individuals’ opportunity costs of starting... View Details

Keywords: Necessity Entrepreneurship; Economic Conditions; Recessions; High-tech Startups; Opportunity Costs; Entrepreneurship; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Business Startups; Information Technology; Performance; Labor

Jun 2016
Video

Video: Fixing America’s Talent Supply Chain

America’s labor market has entered a “new normal” phrase. Although the unemployment rate has declined after the Great Recession, underemployment remains a major problem and the percentage of workers stuck in... View Details

22 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Companies Can Expand Their Talent Pool by Giving Ex-Convicts a Second Chance

Employers looking to fill critical job vacancies may want to turn to a largely untapped pool of willing workers: people with criminal records. Employers are often wary of hiring workers with past convictions, leading to double-digit View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

01 Feb 2021
What Do You Think?

Has the New Economy Finally Arrived?

pandemic) that challenge traditional economic theory centered on the so-called Phillips curve. It’s a simple economic model named after the economist who explored the positive relationship between low unemployment and higher wage rates.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Jul 2016
Video

Fixing America’s Talent Supply Chain

23 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID Was Supposed to Increase Bankruptcies. Instead, They've Gone Down.

Consumer bankruptcies usually climb alongside unemployment rates as filers seek to discharge debt and get a fresh start, write the authors of the new working paper Bankruptcy and the COVID-19 Crisis. “Historically, the number one cause of... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

05 Sep 2019
News

The problem of medical debt, and the wonky fight behind Bernie Sanders’s plan to eliminate it, explained

1998
Working Paper

Some Evidence on the Optimal Welfare State Based on Subjective Data

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

It is often difficult to evaluate all the costs and benefits of the welfare state. This paper suggests an alternative approach based on surveys of citizen satisfaction with welfare programs. In the first part of the paper we estimate the level of unemployment benefits... View Details

Keywords: Personal Characteristics; Employment; Surveys; Programs; Government and Politics; Age; Income; Residency; Welfare; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Cost vs Benefits; Satisfaction; United Kingdom