University of Toronto
Research
Job Market Paper
Public Transit, Residential Sorting and Labor Supply: Evidence and Theory from Lahore’s Bus Rapid Transit System.
Public transit can transform how people live and work, yet its distributional effects remain unclear, particularly in developing cities where most households rely on walking or low-quality transit. This paper studies the Lahore Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to examine how mass transit reshapes residential sorting and labor supply. Using a newly constructed geo-spatial dataset, I show that younger, nuclear, non-college-educated households relocate closer to BRT corridors, resulting in an increased laborforce participation for men in these households. Women’s labor market participation, however, remains largely unchanged—consistent with tied-mover dynamics. To interpret these patterns, I build a quantitative spatial model that incorporates gender constraints, age-based mobility, and endogenous amenities and provides a framework for evaluating the welfare and inequality consequences of transit infrastructure in developing-country contexts.
Working Papers
Cash Transfers, Social Norms and Married Women’s Labor Supply: Evidence from the Benazir Income Support Program
Abstract: This paper uses the introduction of the Benazir Income Support Program in Pakistan to study the impact of unconditional cash transfers on married women's labor supply. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, the paper provides evidence of a positive, significant impact of the transfer on the labor supply of married women without children, but no significant impact on the labor supply of married women with children. These findings are at odds with standard household labor supply models that predict a negative impact of unearned income on labor supply. Instead, I argue, that they are in keeping with models in which gender norms restrict women's ability to enter the workforce. Cash transfers can increase female bargaining power and help them overcome restrictive norms. The paper finds evidence for this: the transfer significantly increases women's control over household funds and their mobility outside the home. Further, dividing households into more or less constrained in terms of the gap between male and female attitudes towards female labor force participation, it finds an increase in labor supply for more constrained households and no impact for less constrained households. These findings, however, are only evident five years into the program. Data concerns makes it difficult to determine whether this is a dynamic effect or an issue of selection. The paper deals extensively with this concern, providing suggestive evidence for the former.
Brides or Breadwinners? Labor versus Marriage Market Returns to Female Education: Evidence from Pakistan
Abstract: Developing countries, in particular in South Asia, are experiencing rapid increases in female educational attainment, with women catching up to and, in some cases, surpassing their male counterparts. This, however, is not refelcted in a similar rise in female labor force participation. Studies suggest that this is due to women selecting into education in order to gain in the marriage market. Education is linked to increased probability of matching in the marriage market and a higher quality of matches. This paper attempts to investigate these issues in the context of Pakistan. Using the introduction of the Female School Stipend Program in districts below the threshold literacy rate of 40%, as an exogenous shock, the paper employs a regression discontinuity framework to investigate the effect of education on female labor and marriage market outcomes. It finds that one more year of education leads to 2% higher probability of being employed and 12% higher probability of being married. It finds no significant impact of education on wages. It further finds gains in the marriage market coming through significantly lower fertility and age gap between husband and wife.But these gains are moderate at best as the results suggest that educated women marry men with lower levels of education and a lower wage.