data, it is difficult to know the prevalence of different forms of sexual harassment and gender-based violence in the workplace in Sub-Saharan Africa. We also do not know how young women’s expectations and previous experiences with sexual harassment constrain their choices about whether and which types of work to pursue, a topic well-suited for qualitative research. We also need to understand how domestic violence, which remains far too common in Africa, affects labor market participation and productivity.<sup>31</sup> An evaluation of safe transportation is currently underway in Mexico City by the Bank’s Transport practice. The program, “ _Hazme el Paro_ ”, supplements sex-segregated transportation with training for bus drivers and police, and a marketing campaign and smartphone application to encourage bystanders to take action.

To study both the network and safety constraints, one option would be to examine the early career experiences of young men and women, and their long-term consequences. Analysis of existing long-run panel data, such as the Young Lives survey, could shed light on how networks and exposure to unsafe environments affect participation and choice of occupation in youth. Even better would be if, in conjunction with existing panel data, we could identify plausibly exogenous shocks that might have shifted job search mechanisms or the size or composition of networks, such as the introduction of mobile phones. Another option for exploring these constraints is through qualitative work with adults to ask about the decisions and circumstances that shaped their early career choices and how those have endured (or not) over time.

# **4.6 Cross-cutting research priorities: Scaling Up, Cost-effectiveness, Heterogeneity, and Measurement**

**_Do girl-friendly program designs work at scale?_** Along with the priorities outlined above, GIL’s current research agenda explores whether the girl-friendly design elements from previous evaluations can be integrated into larger co-educational youth employment programs. Such integration would expand the reach and sustainability of efforts to include girls in the youth employment agenda. Evaluating these larger-scale youth employment programs will determine whether these girl-friendly design elements perform as well at scale as they do in smaller pilot programs.

**_Cost-Effectiveness._** Measuring costs, with the goal of comparing them to the benefits measured in an impact evaluation, is particularly important for interventions in the youth employment space, which tend to be more expensive than other common development initiatives, such as cash transfers or public health interventions. In its forthcoming research, GIL will seek to apply best practice accounting methods to measure the core costs of interventions, including fixed and variable costs. To the extent possible, this will allow for benchmarking the costs of evaluated programs against other types of interventions.

**_Heterogeneity: Approaches and Tradeoffs to Reaching the Most Vulnerable._** A common tension in the design of youth employment programs is the desire to reach the most vulnerable or hard-to-reach youth (e.g., the youngest, poorest, least educated, or otherwise marginalized) while also setting and meeting high targets for the project’s employment impact. Projects that choose to focus on vulnerable groups often

> 31 Several studies in GIL’s Violence thematic area evaluate the impact of behavioral change interventions on intimate-partner violence. These explicitly study women’s socioeconomic outcomes as well.

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