Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Creating Labor Markets in Rural Tanzania

有效的劳动力市场对于确保适当种类和数量的劳动力在适当的工作岗位上就业，以提高生产率和确保经济和社会进步至关重要。由于各种原因，包括找工作的高成本，农业劳动力市场的运作往往不如许多商品市场。其结果是，特别是在低收入国家，农业部门的就业、生产率和收入仍然很低。本研究项目将收集原始数据并使用创新方法来检验农业劳动力市场无法有效地将劳动力输送到最需要的地方的两个可能原因：(1)求职成本高；(2)缺乏为就业提供资金的信贷。这项研究的结果将为制定劳动力市场政策，特别是农业政策提供投入。研究结果适用于低收入国家的劳动力市场，从而有助于美国更有效地制定有针对性的援助政策。通过提高低收入国家农业劳动力市场的效率，本研究的结果将间接帮助美国企业向这些国家的农民推销农业投入，因为该部门雇佣了更多合适的劳动力。高效的农业劳动力市场之所以重要，有两个原因：劳动力是最不发达国家农村经济中最重要的投入，劳动力配置不当会降低农业生产率。本提案将使用实验来检验劳动力市场摩擦的两个来源：由于信息有限而导致的高搜索成本和农民面临的信贷约束。研究人员将设计并实施一个村庄水平的随机现场实验，在这个实验中，治疗组通过短信、招聘贷款或两者同时接收工作公告信息，而对照组则不接收任何信息来测试这些假设。实验设计将允许研究人员确定搜索成本和信贷约束对农村劳动力市场的因果效应。该设计可以适用于其他市场的研究，其结果可以为经济学家更好地理解农村劳动力市场的摩擦提供帮助。这是对发展经济学文献的重要贡献。研究人员收集的数据将提供给未来的研究人员。本研究结果将为美国农村劳动力市场政策提供参考，并指导美国援助政策的制定。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Title: Agricultural Labor MarketsAbstactEfficient labor markets are important for ensuring that the right kind and quantity of labor is employed in the right jobs to increase productivity and ensure economic and social progress. Agricultural labor markets often do not function as well as markets for many goods for a variety of reasons, including the high cost of job search. The result of this is that employment, productivity and incomes in the agricultural sector, especially in low income countries, remain low. This research project will collect original data and use innovative methods to test two possible reasons why agricultural labor markets do not function efficiently to channel labor to where it is most needed: (i) high costs of job search and (ii) lack of credit to finance employment. The results of this research will provide inputs into the formulation of labor market policies generally and agriculture particularly. The results are applicable to labor markets in low income countries and would thus help the US target its aid policies more efficiently. By improving the efficiency of agricultural labor markets in low income countries, the results of this research would indirectly help US businesses market agricultural inputs to farmers in these countries as more and appropriate type of labor is employed in this sector.Efficient agricultural labor markets are important for two reasons: labor is the most important input in rural economies in LDCs and labor misallocation decreases agricultural productivity. This proposal will use experiments to test two sources of labor market frictions: high search cost due to limited information and credit constraints faced by farmers. The researchers will design and implement a village level randomized field experiment in which treated groups receive job announcement information via text messages, a hiring loan, or both and a control group that does not receive anything to test these hypotheses. The experimental design will allow the researchers to identify a causal effect of search cost and credit constraint on rural labor markets. The design can be adapted to study other markets and the results could provide economists a better understanding of the frictions in rural labor market. This is an important contribution to the development economics literature. The data collected by the researchers will be made available to future researchers. The results of this research will inform US policies on rural labor markets as well as guide the formulation of US aid policies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.