Session 2B: Future of Work (Auditorium 2)
Moderator: Joseph Zveglich
Jobs and wages over the course of structural transformation: New evidence from India
Shalini Mittal and Rana Hasan
This paper uses data from India’s economic census for 1998 and 2013 and labor force surveys for 2000, 2011, and 2018 to document and understand how jobs and wages have evolved in India over the two decades prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. There are two key transitions over the period examined: A change in the drivers of economic growth post-2012 and steady expansion of the share of India’s population residing in urban areas. Wage decomposition analysis shows that real wage growth within sectors has stalled and is almost negligible in big cities. However, the transition out of agriculture and the shift from rural to small towns and cities has been beneficial. Simple Mincerian regression confirms an earlier finding from the literature that larger cities and larger firms are associated with higher wage premiums and lower gender wage gaps. Finally, using simple scenario exercise, the paper examines alternative scenarios for sectoral growth in employment and labor productivity for India to achieve upper middle income country by 2035. Whether the concentration of certain production activities in urban agglomerations are particularly good for growth will also be examined.
JEL Code/s: E2, E24, J11, J31, O12
Socioeconomic and labor market impact of digital platforms: Evidence from Indonesia’s First Technology Decacorn
Daniel Suryadarma, Sakina Fukuya, Mayang Rizky and Asep Suryahadi
We estimate the impact of GoJek, an app-based service provider in Indonesia, on socioeconomic and labor market indicators. We take advantage of GoJek’s staggered roll out from 2015 to 2019 as the identification strategy. We use the difference-in-difference method developed by Callaway and Sant’anna (2021), robust to differential treatment timing and heterogeneous treatment effects. We find that GoJek increases per capita GDP by 0.8%, only in the first year of entry. The impact dissipated in the following years. We find that both men and women work longer hours, but do not earn more per hour.
JEL Code/s: C23, J21, J30, O12
The effect of online job fair and signaling: Evidence from randomized experiments in Bangladesh
Norihiko Matsuda and Ryotaro Hayashi
During the COVID-19 crisis, when youth unemployment soared, we conducted randomized control trials on two labor matching interventions: an online job fair and a job preference signaling mechanism. We find the employment effect of the job fair was insignificant. Interestingly, however, the job fair led jobseekers to keep their jobs longer and reduce their reservation wages because the job fair made them better understand the reality of labor markets and correcting their overoptimism. The preference signaling mechanism, which aims to reduce information asymmetry on jobseekers’ interest, is found to be effective in increasing matches between interested jobseekers and employers.
JEL Code/s: J64
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