Inbar Amit

I am a DPhil (PhD) candidate at the University of Oxford and a Research Scholar at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. My research focuses on education, labor and development economics.

I am on the 2026-2027 job market. You can have a look at my CV here!

Working Papers

• Preference for Peers and Educational Inequality: Evidence from School Admission Lotteries (JMP)
  
  Abstract

  I use data from Chile’s centralized school admission system to show that families prefer to enroll children in high schools together with their primary school peers. Leveraging exogenous variation generated by high school admission lotteries, I find that every primary school peer admitted to the same high school increases the probability a family accepts an offer of admission to the school by 0.2 percentage points. To study how a preference to study with peers impacts children’s schooling outcomes, I embed it in a structural model of school choice. Since primary school peers tend to live near one another, a preference to study together in high school increases the probability that families apply to nearby schools, where more primary school peers are expected to apply. For families from low-SES backgrounds, who tend to live closer to low-quality schools, this reduces the likelihood of applying to a high-quality high school. Empirically, I find that the preference to study with peers increases the socioeconomic gap in the probability of admission to a highly-rated high school by 19%, and the gap in high school value-added by 18%. To address these gaps, I show that a transport subsidy policy that expands children’s access to high-quality high schools can benefit from increasing returns to scale through spillovers within peer networks, while generating minimal negative externalities for other children.

• Flexibility versus Performance: The Determinants of Labor Contracts in Nairobi, Kenya
  with Nathan Barker, Alison Andrew, Rob Garlick, Kate Orkin, and Carol Nekesa
  Abstract

  Employment in developing countries is often short and disrupted, generating costly search and limiting the potential for workers to accumulate firm-specific human capital. We study the incentives guiding firms' use of short-term relative to long-term contracts in Nairobi, Kenya, using novel survey data on firms’ hiring and contracting practices, and hypothetical vignettes measuring their beliefs and preferences. Our key finding is that the use of short-term labor is governed by a trade-off between managing demand variation versus minimizing adjustment costs and incentivizing worker performance. We first document that firms face considerable variation in demand for goods and services across time, much of which they pass on to workers through short-term contracts: higher demand variation is associated with a greater use of short-term labor. Second, we show that bringing on short-term workers involves adjustment costs: it takes time searching for, hiring, and on-boarding workers, potentially offsetting the gains from flexibility. We show both that median adjustment costs are low, making short-term contracts feasible for many hires, but that hires with greater adjustment costs are more likely to be on long-term contracts. Finally, we show that firms believe contract type incentivizes worker performance: the same worker is expected to perform better when hired on a long-term basis. We incorporate these features---variation in demand, on-boarding costs, and incentives---into a model of firm hiring, through which to interpret contract choice and turnover in low-income countries.

• Monopsony and Development
  
  Abstract

  I construct a harmonized dataset of labour force and longitudinal household surveys across eight countries to document how monopsony power varies across the development spectrum. I find that the elasticity of labour supply to the firm is, on average, three times higher in high-income countries than in middle-income countries. I also document substantial heterogeneity within countries: more educated workers supply labour to firms more elastically. As a result, differences in educational composition account for 30\% of the cross-country variation in average labour supply elasticities. The remaining differences are consistent with greater search frictions in poorer countries and with labour market policies and institutions that are less favourable to workers. Finally, I show that monopsony power may reduce aggregate economic output by inducing a misallocation of labour between wage- and self-employment.

Work in Progress

• Understanding Barriers to Youth Employment in Kenya

  with Nathan Barker, Alison Andrew, Rob Garlick, Kate Orkin, and Carol Nekesa
  Abstract

  Young jobseekers in developing cities face multiple, mutually reinforcing barriers that may prevent effective job search. In Nairobi, inaccurate or pessimistic beliefs about hiring practices can discourage jobseekers from searching outside their neighbourhoods, while liquidity constraints make travelling to commercial areas costly. At the same time, low self-efficacy, limited resilience to rejection, and weak professional communication skills may reduce search intensity and persistence. Because each constraint can independently inhibit job search, relaxing any one in isolation may have limited effects. We evaluate a guided job search intervention designed to address these constraints simultaneously among young jobseekers in Kibera and Kawangware, two informal settlements in Nairobi. The intervention combines information about hiring practices, training in resilience and professional communication, guided job search in commercial areas, and financial support for search costs. Using a cluster randomized controlled trial with approximately 1,600 jobseekers, we examine whether jointly relaxing these constraints changes beliefs, expands search beyond local neighbourhoods, increases search effort and persistence, and ultimately improves employment and job quality. Fieldwork in Progress

• Monopsony in Low-Income Labor Markets

  Fieldwork in Progress
  Abstract

  Labour market frictions may give employers substantial wage-setting power, particularly in low-income settings where workers face high search costs, limited mobility, and restricted information about alternative employment opportunities. This project examines employer wage-setting power among small and medium-sized firms in Nairobi, Kenya. When workers have few outside options, the labour supply facing individual firms becomes less responsive to wages, allowing employers to pay workers below their marginal product. This may reduce the attractiveness of wage employment, increase inequality, and contribute to the misallocation of labour across sectors. Using experimentally induced variation in wages offered to jobseekers recruited by 200 firms, the study directly measures the elasticity of labour supply facing individual employers. It then examines whether firms with greater wage-setting power offer lower wages and poorer working conditions, and investigates the sources of this power. Particular attention is given to informal hiring networks and workers’ access to alternative employment opportunities, providing evidence on how labour market frictions translate into employer market power and shape the distribution of gains between firms and workers.

• Schools and Gender Norms

  Abstract

  Do high schools shape students’ views on gender? I leverage lottery-induced variation in children’s high school admissions, generated by Chile’s school admissions system, to estimate the causal effect of individual high schools on students’ views on gender. I find substantial heterogeneity across schools: the standard deviation of school effects is approximately 40\% of the student-level standard deviation in gender norms. I then examine whether schools’ effects on gender norms influence students’ choices beyond high school. Because families with more egalitarian gender attitudes tend to select more egalitarian schools, I use admission lotteries to estimate how attending these schools affects students’ subsequent choices. I find that girls admitted to schools that promote more egalitarian attitudes are more likely to apply to university programs with a higher share of male students, while I find no robust effects for boys. Finally, I examine whether families value schools’ effects on gender norms. I find that families with higher incomes and more educated mothers are more likely to apply to schools that promote egalitarian gender attitudes, and that families place greater value on these schools when applying for girls than for boys.

Teaching

• Core Empirical Research Methods (Graduate)

  Course Convenor: Francis DiTraglia Years: 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026

• Core Microeconomics (Undergraduate)

  Course Convenor(s): Sarah Clifford (2022), Alison Andrew (2025, 2026) Years: 2022, 2025, 2026