Seminario CEDE - Nikita Sangwan

Digital job matching platforms can increase labor force participation by reducing job search costs, with potentially greater benefits for women. We implement a cluster RCT in which matched husband-wife pairs residing in urban, low-income neighborhoods in Delhi, India, are offered registration on a hyper-local job aggregator platform that matches them to potential employers (non-network arm). In another treatment arm, both the husband-wife pair and the wife's network are made the same offer (network arm), while no offer is made in the control group. Approximately one year after the intervention the probability that the husband was working increased by 4.7% along with a more than 55% increase in days and hours of work in the network arm. Consequently, his monthly earnings more than doubled in this treatment arm. Surprisingly, the wife's overall work status did not change at either margin, instead, the probability that she was self-employed rose by almost 37.5% a year later in the network treatment. The results highlight the role of social network structures and social norms in effectuating gendered impacts of new labor market technology in developing countries.