Private sector development and income dynamics: A panel study of the Tanzanian labour market

In this paper, we use a three-period panel of Tanzanian households to explore the determinants of earnings and earnings growth from 2004 to 2006. In doing so, we draw particular attention to the role of education and to the importance of heterogeneity between more and less formal occupations. Several important conclusions emerge. Education is found to have a significant convex effect upon earnings levels, but to have had no significant effect upon earnings growth (indeed, there is some suggestion that education may have had a negative impact). This suggests that recent Tanzanian growth may have reflected an ‘unskill-biased technological change’, providing relative reward to informal skills rather than to formal education. Further, there are interesting insights into the age-earnings relationship: the relationship is found significantly to be concave in levels, yet age is not found significantly to have affected earnings growth. This suggests that the concave levels relationship is driven by workers’ participation decisions, rather than by a concave earnings trajectory at the level of the individual worker. Finally, we find significant evidence of variation between formal and informal enterprises, and between sizes of enterprises within these different employment sectors.

When is capital enough to get female microenterprises growing? Evidence from a randomized experiment in Ghana

Standard models of investment predict that credit-constrained firms should grow rapidly when given additional capital, and that how this capital is provided should not effect decisions to invest in the business or consume the capital. We randomly gave cash and in-kind grants to male- and female-owned microenterprises in urban Ghana. Our findings cast doubt on the ability of capital alone to stimulate the growth of female microenterprises. First, while the average treatment effects of the in-kind grants are large and positive for both males and females, the gain in profits is almost zero for women with initial profits below the median, suggesting that capital alone is not enough to grow subsistence enterprises owned by women. Second, for women we strongly reject equality of the cash and in-kind grants; only in-kind grants lead to growth in business profits. The results for men also suggest a lower impact of cash, but differences between cash and in-kind grants are less robust. The difference in the effects of cash and in-kind grants is associated more with a lack of self-control than with external pressure. As a result, the manner in which funding is provided affects microenterprise growth

When is capital enough to get female microenterprises growing? Evidence from a randomized experiment in Ghana

Standard models of investment predict that credit-constrained firmd should grow rapidly when given additional capital, and that how this capital is provided should not affect decisions to invest in the business or consume the capital. We randomly gave cash and in-kind grants to male- and female- owned microenterprises in urban Ghana. Our findings cast doubt on the ability of caoital alone to stimulate the growth of female microenterprises. First, while the average treatment effects of the in-kind grants are large and positive for both males and females, the gain in profits is almost zerp fpr women with itital profits below the median, suggesting that capital alone is not enough to grow subsistence enterprises owned by women. Second, for women we strongly reject equality of the case and in-kind grants; only in-kind grants lead to growth in business profits. The results for men also suggest a lower impact of cash, but differences between cash and in-kind grants is assoicated more with a lack of self-control than with external pressure. As a result, the manner in which funding is provided affects microenterprise growth.microenterprises; ghana; Conditionality; Asset intergration

Anonymity of distance? Job search and labour market exclusion in a growing African city

Do obstacles to job search contribute to labour market exclusion in developing countries? To answer this question, we contrast two very different interventions, designed to alleviate spatial and informational constraints for unemployed youth in a congested African city: a transport subsidy and a job-application workshop. Both treatments have large positive effects on the probability of finding stable and formal jobs. Neither treatment has a significant average effect on the overall probability of employment, but we detect a sizeable increase in earnings and employment rates among the most disadvantaged job-seekers. Our results highlight the importance of job-search constraints as mechanisms for exclusion of the most disadvantaged. They also show that, if targeted well, low-cost interventions can have large impacts, improving equity in the labour marke

Orientalists in uniform? British military encounters and experiences in Egypt, c1798-1801

This thesis examines the experiences of British soldiers and sailors during Britain’s military intervention in Egypt between 1798 and 1801. The operations which took place in these years have been examined in the literature from strategic and geopolitical perspectives, but they have not been appreciated in the context of travel writing or orientalism. This thesis considers whether the British armed forces were contributors to orientalism. Although military personnel were not ordinary travel writers or orientalists, they were undoubtedly influenced by popular travel and orientalist literature. Their different experiences produced accounts that showed a distinctive blend of military narrative, travelogue and orientalist analysis, which has not received the attention deserved

Asset-based microfinance for microenterprises: evidence from Pakistan

We run a field experiment offering graduated microcredit clients the opportunity to finance a business asset worth four times their usual borrowing limit. We implement this using a hire-purchase contract; our control group is offered a zero interest loan at the usual borrowing limit. We find large, significant, and persistent effects: treated microenterprise owners run larger businesses with higher profits; consequently, household consumption increases, particularly on food and children's education. A dynamic structural model with nonconvex capital adjustment costs rationalizes our results and allows counterfactual analysis; this highlights the potential for welfare improvements through large capital injections that are financially sustainable

Matching firms and workers in a field experiment in Ethiopia

Do matching frictions affect youth employment in developing countries? We organise job fairs in Addis Ababa, to match firms with a representative sample of young, educated job-seekers. We create very few jobs: one for approximately 10 firms that attended. We explore reasons for this, and find significant evidence for mismatched expectations: about wages, about firms requirements and about the average quality of job-seekers. We find evidence of learning and updating of beliefs in the aftermath of the fair. This changes behaviour: both workers and firms invest more in formal job search after the fair

Experts react to the Spending Review: what next for the Conservative Party?

We asked experts to react to the 2015 Spending Review, with a particular focus on the Conservative Party moving forward. Tom Quinn sees a pitch for swing voters and the centre ground. Simon Griffiths points towards George Osborne’s ability as a political tactician, and Tim Bale also argues that Osborne is on target to be the next Conservative Party leader. However, Rodney Barker wonders how long it will be until the policies and rhetoric of austerity come back to bite the Chancellor. Mark Garnnett agrees and raises a further crucial point: is the Office of Budget Responsibility on its way to becoming a political tool? And finally, our commentators seem to agree – Labour in Opposition is in trouble, and the less said about that little red book, the better

A Complete Spectroscopic Survey of the Milky Way Satellite Segue 1: The Darkest Galaxy

Spectroscopic study of the Segue 1 dwarf galaxy. --author-supplied descriptio