IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2020-159.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Informality and work status

Author

Listed:
  • Gary S. Fields

Abstract

The most important determinant of households' livelihoods is how much they earn for their labour. People in informal work are more likely to be low earners, to live in poverty, and to make fewer transitions into the higher-paying work statuses. The paper is divided into three main sections: what we mean by informality and work status, why we should differentiate between work statuses, and what we can learn by analysing work statuses and transitions between them.

Suggested Citation

  • Gary S. Fields, 2020. "Informality and work status," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-159, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2020-159.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arnab K Basu & Nancy H Chau & Gary S Fields & Ravi Kanbur, 2019. "Job creation in a multi-sector labour market model for developing economies," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 71(1), pages 119-144.
    2. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2007. "The Economic Lives of the Poor," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 141-168, Winter.
    3. Gindling, T.H. & Newhouse, David, 2014. "Self-Employment in the Developing World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 313-331.
    4. Fields, Gary S., 1975. "Rural-urban migration, urban unemployment and underemployment, and job-search activity in LDCs," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 165-187, June.
    5. Fields,Gary S., 2005. "A guide to multisector labor market models," Social Protection and Labor Policy and Technical Notes 32547, The World Bank.
    6. Gary Fields & Paul Cichello & Samuel Freije & Marta Menendez & David Newhouse, 2003. "Household income dynamics: a four-country story," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 30-54.
    7. Fields,Gary S., 2005. "A guide to multisector labor market models," Policy Research Working Paper Series 32547, The World Bank.
    8. Guillermo E. Perry & William F. Maloney & Omar S. Arias & Pablo Fajnzylber & Andrew D. Mason & Jaime Saavedra-Chanduvi, 2007. "Informality : Exit and Exclusion," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6730, December.
    9. Fields, Gary S., 2012. "Working Hard, Working Poor: A Global Journey," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199794645.
    10. Ravi Kanbur, 2017. "Informality: Causes, consequences and policy responses," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 939-961, November.
    11. Enrique Alaniz & T.H. Gindling & Catherine Mata & Diego Rojas, 2020. "Transforming informal work and livelihoods in Costa Rica and Nicaragua," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-100, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lourenco S. Paz, 2021. "How does import competition impact job type?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(3), pages 2063-2020.
    2. Carlos Salas-Páez & Luis Quintana-Romero & Miguel A. Mendoza-González & José Álvarez-García, 2022. "Analysis of Job Transitions in Mexico with Markov Chains in Discrete Time," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-13, May.
    3. Lourenco Paz, 2022. "Does age modulate the impact of import competition on job type?," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 11(4), pages 161-171.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Danquah Michael & Schotte Simone & Sen Kunal, 2021. "Informal work in sub-Saharan Africa: Dead end or stepping-stone?," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-44, January.
    2. Falco, Paolo & Maloney, William F. & Rijkers, Bob & Sarrias, Mauricio, 2015. "Heterogeneity in subjective wellbeing: An application to occupational allocation in Africa," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 137-153.
    3. Helio Mau-Quei & Michael P. Cameron, 2019. "The Characteristics of the Informal Sector in Timor-Leste," Working Papers in Economics 19/05, University of Waikato.
    4. T. H. Gindling & Nadwa Mossaad & David Newhouse, 2016. "How Large are Earnings Penalties for Self-Employed and Informal Wage Workers?," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-39, December.
    5. Nicoletta Batini & Young-Bae Kim & Paul Levine & Emanuela Lotti, 2009. "Informal Labour and Credit Markets: A Survey," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0609, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    6. Mónica Jiménez, 2017. "La calidad del empleo y sus consecuencias para el mercado de trabajo de las medianas y grandes empresas y del sector público de argentina," Revista Economía, Fondo Editorial - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, vol. 40(79), pages 133-180.
    7. David KUCERA & Leanne RONCOLATO, 2008. "Informal employment: Two contested policy issues," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 147(4), pages 321-348, December.
    8. M. Ali Khan, 2007. "The Harris-Todaro Hypothesis," Labor Economics Working Papers 22206, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    9. Karaivanov, Alexander & Yindok, Tenzin, 2022. "Involuntary entrepreneurship – Evidence from Thai urban data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    10. Bargain, Olivier & Etienne, Audrey & Melly, Blaise, 2021. "Informal pay gaps in good and bad times: Evidence from Russia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 693-714.
    11. David Cook & Hiromi Nosaka, 2006. "Dual labor markets and business cycles," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Jun.
    12. Almeida, Rita & Carneiro, Pedro, 2008. "Mandated benefits, employment, and inequality in a dual economy," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 45051, The World Bank.
    13. Sabine Bernab? & Marco Stampini, 2008. "Labour mobility during transition: evidence from Georgia," LICOS Discussion Papers 20608, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    14. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda, 2014. "The Informal Sector Wage Gap: New Evidence Using Quantile Estimations on Panel Data," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 117-153.
    15. David N Margolis, 2014. "By Choice and by Necessity: Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment in the Developing World," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(4), pages 419-436, September.
    16. Bargain, Olivier & Magejo, Prudence, 2010. "Is Informality Bad? Evidence from Brazil, Mexico and South Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 4711, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Colin C. Williams & Kwame Adom & Ioana Alexandra Horodnic, 2020. "Determinants Of The Level Of Informalization Of Enterprises: Some Evidence From Accra, Ghana," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 25(01), pages 1-24, March.
    18. Eliane El Badaoui & Olivier Bargain & Prudence Magejo & Eric Strobl & Frank Walsh, 2023. "A Search Model with Self-Employment and Heterogeneity in Managerial Ability," Working Papers hal-04159859, HAL.
    19. Carmen Pagés-Serra & Marco Stampini, 2007. "¿Sin formación no hay buenos empleos? Elementos de juicio sobre la relación entre la formación y la segmentación del mercado laboral," Research Department Publications 4562, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    20. Colin C. Williams & Ioana Alexandra Horodnic & Jan Windebank, 2017. "Evaluating the internal dualism of the informal sector: evidence from the European Union," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(4), pages 605-616, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Informal work; Work status; Livelihoods; Poverty;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-159. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.