The Illusion of Time: Gender Gaps in Job Search and Employment

In countries with low female employment, college educated women often transition directly from education to homemaking. Does this reflect informed, forward-looking choices or unanticipated constraints? We study this question in Pakistan, where two-thirds of college-educated women remain out of the labor force. Tracking 2,400 students from two major universities, we document labor market expectations before graduation, and realized outcomes in the year that follows. Men and women have similar work aspirations, apply at similar times and rates, and receive comparable numbers of job offers, but women are more likely to reject them. As a result, a 27 pp employment gap emerges within six months. The gap stems largely from timing: for women, there is a critical window, immediately post-graduation, during which job search is associated with much higher chances of employment. There is no such window for men. To test whether this relationship is causal—and anticipated—we randomize a modest incentive to apply early. By shifting students’ search into the critical early window, the intervention raises women’s employment by ~ 20%, but leaves men’s unaffected, closing a third of the gender employment gap. Treatment effects are driven by women who underestimate how quickly marriage market activities arise, revealing an “illusion of time.”