• Paid With(out) Purpose: Costs of Poor Matches on the Meaning of Work

Abstract: Studies in Economics investigate the meaningfulness of one’s work as a possible driver of labor supply on both intensive and extensive margins. However, these studies traditionally use a fixed assignment of “meaningful” and “non-meaningful” task framing in their designs, not allowing for potential worker-level variation in perception of and preference for work meaning. I design a novel experiment to capture worker-level match on work meaning and investigate impacts of match quality on worker mood, work choices, and productivity. Workers indeed show significant variation in both perceptions of and preference for meaning, with 33% of workers always choosing and 11.5% never choosing a task they rate as more meaningful when it is available (compared to 36% and 4% of workers always and never choosing a higher-paying task when it is available, respectively). Preliminary results suggest that work meaning has significant impacts on work choice, worker mood, and productivity.

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• Benefits on the Bench: Workfare, Mental Health, and the Role of the Team

with Carlos Brito​

Abstract: Recent studies have found large positive effects of working compared to pure cash transfers on various measures of mental health for labor demand-constrained populations. We hypothesize that some such benefits could stem from belonging to and training with a team even if one is not ultimately selected to work, which we term as “being on the bench”. This study proposes a novel field experiment to investigate the effects of being placed on the bench by a randomized employment lottery for forcibly displaced Venezuelan migrants in Roraima, a Brazilian border state. This population is understood to have both high unemployment and job-seeking as well as poor mental health, making them both appropriate and necessary to study. As we expect these effects to operate through alignment with the meaningfulness or mission of work being trained for, we introduce variation in the meaningfulness of tasks offered. Similar to previous studies, we also include a cash transfer treatment arm and pure control for comparison.​​​​​

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• Evaluating the Impact of Social Norms, Signaling and Decision Empowerment on Graduate Employment Decisions About Low Paying Jobs: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial in Ghana

with Grace Abban-Ampiah, Martin M. Tuuli, Richard K. Boso, Joseph Ofori-Dankwa, and Leïla Njee Bugha 

​Abstract: ​ Graduate unemployment in Ghana remains a pressing concern, despite rising tertiary education attainment. Less-explored explanations include the influence of social expectations as well as perceptions about the negative signal taking up certain jobs may communicate to future employers. These factors may delay labor market entry and contribute to underemployment. An additional factor may be lack of graduate empowerment to make employment decisions with skills such as communication and self confidence, which are crucial for navigating early labor markets. Taken together, these soft skills are especially critical when job opportunities do not align neatly with graduates’ expectations or social validation. Few interventions in Ghana have targeted such psychosocial readiness and adaptive capabilities needed to succeed in a dynamic job market. This pilot addresses a major policy gap in the design of youth employment interventions, which often focus on skills or job creation while underestimating social and behavioral constraints. Ghana’s National Youth Policy and initiatives, like the National Service Scheme (NSA), and YouStart, prioritize job readiness and inclusion, yet struggle to ensure job uptake and sustainability. Our pilot complements these efforts by testing soft skills-oriented, psychosocially supportive, and cost-effective interventions.