In Simple Words
Imagine a worker starting a new assembly task. On day one, they spend time understanding the sorting rules and move cautiously, making frequent mistakes. By day four, repeated practice turns the sequence into muscle memory, enabling them to sort faster and make far fewer errors.
Bean sorters across four days in Malawi
- First day
- 6.02 units sorted per day
- Fourth day
- 8.12 units sorted per day
Observed daily averages; attendance varied. Adjusted analysis also found rising output, but this does not isolate learning from every other time effect.
See source →Research question
Evaluating whether casual day-labor productivity increases over short multi-day employment spans due to task learning and familiarity rather than worker turnover or selection.
Participants
N = 612 contracted casual workers across 1,461 worker-day observations over 4 consecutive days in 12 villages in rural Malawi.
Study Design
Individual fixed-effects panel regressions measuring daily output quantity and sorting error rates across 4 consecutive contract days.
Results
Daily output increases from 6.02 units on Day 1 to 8.12 units on Day 4 (+2.10 units sorted per day, p < 0.01), while error rates drop from 2.20 to 1.69 errors per unit (-0.51 errors, p < 0.01), robust to worker fixed effects.
Takeaway
Structure short-term casual contracts across consecutive days to capture intra-week learning curves and boost daily output volume.