The Psychosocial Value of Employment: Evidence from a Refugee Campt

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hussam, Reshmaan; Kelley, Erin M.; Lane, Gregory; Zahra, Fatima
• 署名单位: Harvard University; The World Bank; University of Chicago; New York University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20211616
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 3694-3724
• 关键词: depression; unemployment; preferences; inference; aversion; income; work; time

摘要

Employment may be important to well-being for reasons beyond its role as an income source. This paper presents a causal esti-mate of the psychosocial value of employment in refugee camps in Bangladesh. We involve 745 individuals in a field experiment with three arms: a control arm, a weekly cash arm, and an employment arm of equal value. Employment raises psychosocial well-being sub-stantially more than cash alone, and 66 percent of the employed are willing to forgo cash payments to continue working temporarily for free. Despite material poverty, those in our context both experience and recognize a nonmonetary, psychosocial value to employment. (JEL C93, D91, I31, J15, J22, O15)