Reproducibility package for Beyond Wages: What Matters Most In Job Choice For Women In El Salvador
Overview
This paper studies job preferences among women in rural and peri-urban areas in El Salvador using a Discrete Choice Experiment. Drawing on focus group insights, we vary wages and five non‑wage job attributes—contract status, experience requirements, commute safety, residential address disclosure, and childcare availability; and estimate preferences using a mixed logit model. Women are willing to forgo substantial earnings for jobs that offer a safe commute, accessible childcare, and lower barriers to entry, while formal contracts play a limited role in job choice in this high informality context. Preferences are heterogeneous: risk averse and rural women place a particularly high premium on safety and childcare, while younger and less risk averse women are more sensitive to entry barriers and address related stigma. The results highlight the importance of labor market frictions that prevent wages from compensating for job disamenities and suggest that policies targeting safety, childcare, and access may be more effective than contract formalization in expanding women’s employment opportunities.
Reproducibility Package
| Repository name | URI |
|---|---|
| Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank) | https://reproducibility.worldbank.org |
Reproducibility
Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:
• OS: Windows 11 Enterprise
• Processor: INTEL(R) XEON(R) PLATINUM 8562Y+, 2800 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
• Memory available: 112 GB
Run time: 6 minutes
To reproduce the findings in this paper, users must do the following:
- Once the data is published in the microdata library, download and place it in the appropriate folder.
- Open the
master-dofile, change the path and user name at the top of the script. - Run the code.
Since the data is not yet publicly available, the results created by the replicators are included in the folder outputs so that interested users can verify these against the results in the paper.
Data
All data is not yet publicly available, but is expected to be made available through the World Bank Microdata Library in the future.
Description
| Author | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Ivette Contreras | World Bank | icontreras@worldbank.org |
| Lelys Dinarte-Diaz | World Bank | ldinartediaz@worldbank.org |
| Amparo Palacios-Lopez | World Bank | apalacioslopez@worldbank.org |
| Valentina Costa | World Bank | vcosta@worldbank.org |
| Steffanny Romero | World Bank | stefann.romero@gmail.com |
2026-02-20
Scope and coverage
| Location | Code |
|---|---|
| El Salvador | SLV |
Disclaimer
The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.
Access and rights
| Name | URI |
|---|---|
| Modified BSD3 | https://opensource.org/license/bsd-3-clause/ |
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Ivette Contreras | World Bank | icontreras@worldbank.org |
| Reproducibility WBG | World Bank | reproducibility@worldbank.org |
Information on metadata
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reproducibility WBG | DECDI | World Bank - Development Impact Department | Verification and preparation of metadata |
2026-02-20
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