The Gender and Diversity Lab (GDLab), an initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, has launched a new Call for Research Proposals on “Economic Opportunities for Women and Men: The Role of Regulation and Fiscal Policy.”

The call seeks research proposals that can generate rigorous, credible, and policy-relevant evidence on one of the most important questions facing economies in Latin America and the Caribbean: how government regulations, financial systems, fiscal policies, and labor-market reforms affect the economic opportunities available to women and men, and how public policy can help reduce gender differences in economic outcomes.

Through this initiative, GDLab and the IDB’s Institutions for Development Sector are looking to support research that goes beyond describing gender gaps. Instead, the call emphasizes causal research capable of determining whether particular policies, reforms, regulations, or interventions actually produce different outcomes for women and men.

Researchers are encouraged to develop studies that can provide practical evidence for governments, private-sector organizations, and multilateral institutions seeking to design more effective policies and programs.

The deadline for applications is September 24, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. ET (noon).

Key Details at a Glance

About the Research Call

Gender differences in economic opportunities can emerge from many aspects of economic and institutional systems. Regulations can influence whether women and men can enter particular occupations, establish businesses, access financial services, participate in the labor market, or benefit equally from economic reforms.

Similarly, fiscal policy can affect households, workers, businesses, and entrepreneurs differently depending on gender, income, employment status, family responsibilities, and access to economic resources.

The new GDLab call is designed to support research that investigates these relationships systematically.

Rather than simply asking whether a gender gap exists, researchers are expected to examine questions such as:

• What causes differences in economic opportunities between women and men?
• Which regulations create or reduce barriers to women’s economic participation?
• Do financial policies affect women and men differently?
• How do fiscal reforms influence women’s and men’s labor-market outcomes?
• What happens when governments introduce a particular policy or regulatory reform?
• Which interventions are effective at reducing gender disparities?
• Are some policies more effective for certain groups of women or men?
• What policy instruments can governments use to expand economic opportunities?
• How can governments, businesses, and multilateral organizations use evidence to design more effective interventions?

The emphasis on causal research is particularly important because the organizers are seeking evidence that can help distinguish correlation from actual policy effects.

Main Objective of the Call

The central objective is to support rigorous causal research addressing two broad areas.

1. Understanding how reforms affect women and men differently

The call seeks research examining how regulatory, financial, fiscal, and labor reforms affect economic opportunities for women and men.

This could include studying whether a particular reform changes:

• Labor-force participation
• Employment
• Earnings
• Entrepreneurship
• Business creation
• Access to finance
• Business growth
• Occupational opportunities
• Formal employment
• Access to economic resources
• Productivity
• Economic mobility
• Other relevant measures of economic opportunity

Researchers should be able to establish credible relationships between the policy or reform being studied and the resulting outcomes.

2. Identifying policies that can reduce gender differences

The second major objective is to understand how policy instruments can improve economic opportunities and reduce differences between women and men.

This moves the research from diagnosis toward solutions.

The strongest studies may therefore demonstrate not only that a gender gap exists, but also identify which policy interventions can effectively address the gap and under what circumstances.

What Topics Will the Research Call Prioritize?

The call focuses broadly on the relationship between economic opportunity, gender, regulation, fiscal policy, financial systems, and labor-market policies.

Researchers may investigate how different forms of government intervention influence women and men differently.

Potential research areas can include the following.

1. Regulatory Reforms

Regulations can have significant effects on people’s ability to participate in economic activity.

Research could examine how changes in regulations affect women and men in areas such as:

• Employment
• Entrepreneurship
• Business registration
• Business ownership
• Occupational access
• Labor-market participation
• Business operations
• Access to markets
• Formalization
• Economic activity

A strong proposal could investigate whether a regulatory reform removes barriers to women’s participation or unintentionally creates new constraints.

2. Financial Policies and Access to Finance

Access to financial services is another important component of economic opportunity.

Researchers could examine whether women and men experience different outcomes from:

• Credit policies
• Financial inclusion programs
• Lending reforms
• Access to business finance
• Financial regulations
• Credit guarantees
• Digital financial services
• Other financial policy instruments

The research could investigate whether financial reforms improve women’s ability to start, operate, or expand businesses and whether the effects differ from those experienced by men.

3. Fiscal Policy

Fiscal policies can influence economic decisions and opportunities through taxation, government spending, transfers, subsidies, and other mechanisms.

Researchers could examine whether fiscal reforms have different effects on women and men.

Possible questions could include:

• Does a particular tax reform affect women and men differently?
• Do government transfers increase women’s economic participation?
• Can fiscal incentives encourage women’s entrepreneurship?
• Do public spending programs improve women’s access to economic opportunities?
• How do fiscal policies interact with household responsibilities?
• Are certain fiscal instruments more effective at reducing gender disparities?

The objective would be to produce evidence that can inform future fiscal-policy decisions.

4. Labor-Market Reforms

Labor-market policies are directly connected to economic opportunity.

Researchers could study the effects of reforms involving:

• Employment regulations
• Labor-market participation
• Working conditions
• Employment protections
• Formal employment
• Wages
• Hiring
• Occupational mobility
• Other labor-market outcomes

The research should examine whether particular policies create different effects for women and men and whether reforms can reduce existing disparities.

Why Causal Research Is Central to This Opportunity

One of the most important requirements of this call is that proposals use rigorous quantitative methods capable of establishing causal relationships.

This means that applicants should not simply present descriptive statistics showing that women and men have different economic outcomes.

For example, a study showing that women earn less than men would demonstrate a gender difference, but by itself it would not establish what caused that difference.

The call is interested in research that can answer stronger questions such as:

What was the effect of a specific policy, regulation, or reform on women’s economic outcomes compared with what would have happened without that intervention?

This distinction makes the methodological component of the proposal extremely important.

Methodologies That May Be Used

The call specifically identifies several rigorous quantitative approaches.

Experimental Designs

Experimental research can be used when researchers can credibly introduce or evaluate an intervention and compare outcomes between relevant groups.

For example, researchers could evaluate whether a particular policy intervention changes economic outcomes for women compared with an appropriate comparison group.

Quasi-Experimental Designs

Quasi-experimental methods can be particularly useful when researchers cannot randomly assign policies or interventions.

Depending on the research question and available data, appropriate approaches could include methods designed to exploit:

• Policy changes
• Regulatory reforms
• Eligibility thresholds
• Geographic variation
• Timing differences
• Other institutional or policy changes

The key requirement is that the chosen methodology must provide a credible strategy for identifying causal effects.

Structural Models

The call also allows the use of structural models.

These approaches can be useful when researchers want to model economic behavior and simulate how alternative policies or reforms could affect outcomes.

A structural approach may therefore allow researchers to examine not only the effect of an existing policy but potentially the implications of alternative policy scenarios.

Role of Qualitative Research

The call does not completely exclude qualitative research.

However, qualitative components will be considered only to the extent that they support the implementation of the quantitative analysis.

This means that a proposal centered primarily on qualitative interviews, focus groups, narratives, or descriptive case studies may not align well with the call’s methodological expectations.

A stronger approach would be to use qualitative information strategically to:

• Inform the design of the quantitative research
• Help understand the institutional context
• Support interpretation of quantitative findings
• Improve implementation of the research strategy
• Help explain mechanisms behind quantitative results

The quantitative causal component should remain central.

Geographic Scope: Latin America and the Caribbean

A critical eligibility condition is the geographic focus of the research.

Only proposals analyzing one or more of the 26 IDB borrowing member countries will be considered.

This means researchers should ensure that their proposed study has a clear connection to an eligible IDB borrowing member country.

Applicants should therefore verify the IDB’s official list of borrowing member countries before developing their proposal.

The geographic requirement is important because the call is designed to generate evidence directly relevant to economic and policy challenges in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

What Makes a Strong Proposal?

Although the final proposal should follow the detailed requirements in the official brochure, the description of the call provides several clear indications of what the organizers are seeking.

A competitive proposal should ideally demonstrate:

1. A clear research question

The proposal should clearly explain what economic or policy question it intends to answer.

2. A strong gender dimension

The research should meaningfully examine differences between women and men rather than simply mentioning gender as a secondary variable.

3. A clearly defined policy or reform

The study should identify the relevant regulation, financial policy, fiscal reform, labor reform, or other policy instrument being evaluated.

4. A credible causal identification strategy

The proposal needs to explain how the researchers will establish a causal relationship.

5. Appropriate quantitative data

Applicants should demonstrate that the necessary data are available or realistically obtainable.

6. Policy relevance

The research should have potential implications for real-world decision-making.

7. Actionable recommendations

The call particularly encourages proposals that can generate recommendations for:

• Governments
• Private-sector organizations
• Multilateral organizations

This makes policy applicability an important feature of a potentially competitive proposal.

Potential Research Questions Applicants Could Explore

The following examples illustrate the type of questions that could fit within the broad theme of the call. They are illustrative research directions, not an official list of required topics.

Regulation

• How does a change in business registration regulation affect women’s business creation?
• Do regulatory reforms affect female-owned businesses differently from male-owned businesses?
• Which regulatory barriers have the greatest effect on women’s participation in formal economic activity?

Finance

• Does improved access to formal credit increase women’s entrepreneurship?
• Do financial reforms produce different business outcomes for women-owned and men-owned enterprises?
• What types of financial interventions most effectively reduce gender gaps in access to capital?

Fiscal Policy

• How do changes in taxation affect women’s labor-force participation?
• Do government transfers have different employment effects for women and men?
• Can targeted fiscal policies increase women’s participation in economic activity?

Labor Markets

• How do labor regulations influence women’s formal employment?
• Do changes in employment protections affect women and men differently?
• Which labor-market reforms are most effective at reducing gender disparities?

Again, the strongest proposal would need to translate such a question into a rigorous causal research design.

Why This Research Matters

Gender differences in economic opportunity are not simply individual-level issues. They can affect households, businesses, labor markets, productivity, income distribution, and broader economic development.

When women face barriers to employment, entrepreneurship, finance, or economic participation, economies may fail to use a significant portion of their available human capital.

Understanding which policies actually improve economic opportunities can therefore help governments allocate resources more effectively.

This is particularly important because policies that appear gender-neutral on paper can sometimes have different effects on women and men.

For example, a policy may technically apply equally to both groups but interact differently with:

• Household responsibilities
• Existing employment patterns
• Access to financial resources
• Business ownership
• Occupational segregation
• Labor-market participation
• Access to formal institutions

Rigorous causal research can help policymakers identify these differences and design more effective interventions.

Policy Impact Is a Major Component

The call explicitly encourages research capable of generating actionable recommendations.

This means the ultimate value of a successful study should extend beyond academic publication.

Research findings could potentially help policymakers understand:

• Which policies work
• Which policies do not work
• For whom policies work
• How large the effects are
• Whether effects differ by gender
• What unintended consequences may exist
• How policies could be improved
• Whether an intervention can be scaled
• How limited public resources could be allocated more effectively

The findings may also be relevant to private-sector organizations and multilateral institutions.

Potential Benefits for Selected Researchers

Selected studies will undergo external peer review, which can provide an additional layer of academic and methodological scrutiny.

Selected research may also be considered for publication in the IDB Working Paper Series.

In addition, the call encourages publication in academic journals.

For researchers, this means the opportunity can potentially provide more than research funding. A successfully completed project could also contribute to:

• Academic research
• Policy evidence
• Regional economic policy discussions
• Gender-equality research
• Government decision-making
• Institutional research outputs
• Peer-reviewed publications

Funding Available

The call provides funding under categories specified by the organizers.

Because the exact funding amounts and corresponding requirements are detailed in the official brochure, applicants should review the brochure carefully before preparing their budgets and submitting their proposals.

Researchers should pay particular attention to:

• Available funding categories
• Maximum funding amounts
• Eligible expenses
• Research team requirements
• Proposal requirements
• Methodological expectations
• Application documentation
• Submission procedures

Applicants should not rely solely on summaries of the call when preparing a submission. The official brochure should be treated as the authoritative source for the complete funding and eligibility conditions.

Click HERE to learn more.

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted online through the Oxford Abstracts platform.

The application process should be approached carefully because the proposal needs to demonstrate both substantive relevance and methodological rigor.

Step 1: Review the Official Call

Begin by reading the official brochure carefully.

Pay particular attention to:

• Eligibility
• Research priorities
• Funding categories
• Proposal requirements
• Evaluation criteria
• Submission requirements
• Key dates

Step 2: Select an Eligible Country

Make sure the research analyzes one or more of the 26 IDB borrowing member countries.

Step 3: Define the Research Question

Develop a precise question related to economic opportunities for women and men and the role of:

• Regulation
• Financial policy
• Fiscal policy
• Labor-market reform
• Other relevant policy instruments

Step 4: Develop the Causal Strategy

Explain exactly how the research will establish causal effects.

The proposal should identify the appropriate quantitative methodology and demonstrate why it is suitable for the research question.

Step 5: Demonstrate Data Feasibility

Applicants should consider whether the necessary data exist and whether they can realistically be accessed and analyzed within the project’s scope.

Step 6: Explain Policy Relevance

Clearly explain how the findings could inform policy decisions.

Step 7: Develop Actionable Recommendations

Where possible, demonstrate how the research could translate evidence into recommendations for governments, businesses, and multilateral organizations.

Step 8: Submit Through Oxford Abstracts

The completed application must be submitted through the designated Oxford Abstracts application platform before the deadline.

Application Deadline

The deadline is:

September 24, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. ET (noon).

Applicants should not wait until the final hours to submit their proposals. Researchers should allow sufficient time to:

• Review eligibility requirements
• Develop the research question
• Finalize the methodology
• Verify data availability
• Prepare the research team information
• Develop the budget
• Review supporting documentation
• Complete the online application
• Resolve any technical issues with submission

APPLY HERE

Conclusion

The GDLab Call for Research Proposals on Economic Opportunities for Women and Men: The Role of Regulation and Fiscal Policy offers an important opportunity for researchers studying gender differences in economic participation and the effectiveness of public policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The call is particularly suited to research teams capable of conducting rigorous quantitative causal analysis rather than purely descriptive or qualitative studies. Its emphasis on regulatory, financial, fiscal, and labor reforms creates a broad research space for investigators examining how policy decisions shape economic opportunities for women and men.

A particularly strong application is likely to combine a well-defined policy question, a credible causal identification strategy, appropriate quantitative data, a clear gender dimension, and strong policy relevance. Researchers are also encouraged to ensure that their findings can translate into actionable recommendations for governments, businesses, and multilateral institutions.