Can Job Training Decrease Women’s Self-Defeating Biases? : Experimental Evidence from Nigeria

Croke, Kevin ; Goldstein, Markus ; Holla, Alaka

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: JOB TRAINING;    GENDER;    OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY;    LABOR MARKET;    RANDOMIZED TRIAL;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8141
RP-ID  :  WPS8141

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Occupational segregation is a centralcontributor to the gap between male and female earningsworldwide. As new sectors of employment emerge, a keyquestion is whether this pattern is replicated. This paperexamines this question by focusing on the emerginginformation and communications technology sector in Nigeria.Using a randomized control trial, the paper examines theimpacts of an information and communications technologytraining intervention that targeted university graduates infive major cities. The analysis finds that after two yearsthe treatment group was 26 percent more likely to work inthe information and communications technology sector.Theprogram appears to have succeeded only in shiftingemployment to the new sector, as it had no average impact onthe overall likelihood of being employed. However, viewedthrough the lens of occupational segregation, the programhad a surprising effect. For women who at baseline wereimplicitly biased against associating women withprofessional attributes, the likelihood that the programinduced switching into the information and communicationstechnology sector was more than three times as large thanthat of unbiased women. These results suggest that trainingprograms can help individuals overcome self-defeating biasesthat could hamper mobility and reduce efficiency in thelabor market.