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Women remain disadvantaged in access to management positions around the world. We conduct a field experiment with 24 large garment factories in Bangladesh to test for inefficient representation of women among line supervisors. We identify the marginal female and male candidates for supervisory positions and randomly assign them to manage production lines. Three sets of results emerge: (i) extensive diagnostic testing at baseline reveal few skill differences between marginal female and male supervisor candidates; (ii) initially, marginal female candidates have lower productivity and evaluations from sub-ordinate workers, though after four to six months, these gaps disappear; and (iii) the share of the female candidates retained as line supervisor after the trial is significantly higher than the share of female supervisors in the factories at baseline. This suggests that factories previously promoted fewer women than would have been optimal. Additional surveys and a lab-in-the-field experiment suggest that the initially worse performance stems from negative beliefs of workers about the abilities of female supervisors.

Sex discrimination in employment. --- Women supervisors.

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The average price of cement in Africa was the highest of any continent in 2011, but by 2017 it had fallen by 35 percent, the largest decline in the world, according to data from the International Comparison Program. An empirical industry equilibrium model distinguishes between the fundamental drivers of differences in prices across countries: demand elasticity, costs, conduct, and entry. The model reveals that in 2011 average prices in Africa included the highest markups and marginal costs in the world. The price decline in 2017 is accounted for by a rapid increase in the number of firms producing cement, which lowered markups, and a declining marginal cost of production. Improvements in the quality of infrastructure or institutions could explain declining marginal costs, as could new technology installed by new entrants. Estimated fixed costs of entry are positive, although not systematically higher in Africa compared with other continents, suggesting equally free entry in the presence of a minimum efficient scale that does not vary across continents. These results suggest that the small size of national markets rather than regulation of entry explains why the price of cement was so high in Africa. As the market has grown, prices have fallen.

Cement --- Construction Industry --- Demand Elasticity --- Firm Entry --- Industrial Economics --- Industry --- Intermediate Goods Price --- Market Power --- Oligopoly