Mahdi Majbouri

@Sapai_Javid @grok Very good question. I think the rest of the world is too diverse, but specifically, I know of Kailash Rajah's job market paper (he is in the market this year) which is a field experiment with results aligned with this paper.

@Majbouri @grok, what do you think about this phenomenon in other parts of the world

Excited to share my working paper: 1/ In many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, women’s education levels have risen & fertility has fallen — yet female labor‑force participation remains stubbornly low. Why? iza.org/publications/d…

@TomPMarshall Thank you very much!

@Majbouri Great paper!

@_alice_evans Thank you, @_alice_evans ! I am delighted that you liked the paper! I have seen many of your posts on X before and learned from them quite a lot. Thank you!

Why do only 16% of Egyptian women work? Men decide whether their wives work, and oppose gender mixed workplaces. They require 77% higher wages for wives to work alongside men. This preference is even stronger among non-college educated men. Women show no such preference. Great illustration of the "Honour-Income Trade-Off!" Bravo @Majbouri!!

10/ For more results, check out the paper at iza.org/publications/d…

9/ For economies across MENA & beyond, this paper highlights a hidden — but sizable — drag on women’s economic participation.

10/ Thanks to everyone who supported/gave feedback. Happy to discuss if you’re curious about the dataset, robustness checks, and other results in the paper feel free to ask.

9/ Given the prevalence of conscription in developing countries, we need more research exploring long‑term consequences of conscription (e.g., on cognitive and non-cognitive skills, marriage and labor markets outcomes, inequality).

Excited to share my new paper, “Sir! I’d Rather Go to School, Sir!”, published in Economic Development and Cultural Change. I examine how mandatory conscription and an age‑based exemption law in Iran shaped college attendance among sole sons. 1/ doi.org/10.1086/737134