The Mind and Behaviour Research Group brings together economists, psychiatrists, and psychologists based at the University of Oxford as part of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. Our aim is to investigate the psychological impact of living in poverty and use findings to improve policy programmes.
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Our research in the news
All newsThe UNDP Accelerator Lab in The Gambia is launching an exciting new soft skills training programme for young people who have lost their jobs because of COVID-19. The program will be adopting a labour market intervention developed by Carranza, Garlick, Orkin and Rankin (2020) to reduce labour market friction between prospective employers and young work-seekers.
Using a recently developed toolkit (available on the MBRG website), the team will be delivering an evidence-based program, with iterative feedback from head hunting agencies, with the aims to increase job security. Gambia have adapted the intervention to the local context and are looking to do a six-month evaluation next year.
This project was conducted in collaboration with the World Bank Jobs Group and Africa Gender Innovation Lab, and received funding from the National Science Foundation (#1824413), Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (#3024 and #4728), W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund (UKRI GCRF) Accelerating Achievement for Africa’s Adolescents Hub. With thanks to the staff at the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Africa Office, Duke University, University of Oxford and University of Stellenbosch.
Addressing information frictions by improving skills communication between work-seekers and potential employers can increase earnings and positive employment outcomes. Carranza, Garlick, Orkin and Rankin (2020) discuss how a skills assessment intervention has had positive outcomes for young work-seekers in South Africa.
Carranza, Garlick, Orkin and Rankin (2020) discuss their latest paper, showing that assessing young work-seekers’ skills can increase earnings and employment and help prospective employers too. With 67.6 million people aged 15-24 unemployed in 2019, the potential of this intervention to mitigate labour market frictions is exciting.