Kwacha Gonna Do? Experimental Evidence about Labor Supply in Rural Malawi

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Goldberg, Jessica
• 署名单位: University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20130369
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 129-149
• 关键词: wages; work

摘要

I use a field experiment to estimate the wage elasticity of employment in the day labor market in rural Malawi. Once a week for 12 consecutive weeks, I make job offers for a workfare-type program to 529 adults. The daily wage varies from the tenth to the ninetieth percentile of the wage distribution, and individuals are entitled to work a maximum of one day per week. In this context (the low agricultural season), 74 percent of individuals worked at the lowest wage, and consequently the estimated labor supply elasticity is low (0.15), regardless of observable characteristics.