IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/col/000090/005863.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Informal Labor Market in Colombia: identification and characterization

Author

Listed:
  • Bernal Raquel

    ()

Abstract

In this paper, we study the extent and nature of informality in Colombia by using the new chapter on informality in the Encuesta Continua de Hogares (ECH) from August 2006 to December 2006, which includes new questions deepening the information on coverage of social protection benefits, labor market trajectories, and motivations for sector of employment. The availability of these new data allows us to measure informality in several ways and understand the differences and implications of using various definitions. We show that social security contributions is a reasonable measure of informality as it is a good indicator that the individual has the entire package of benefits associated with formal employment. We then use this definition of informality to characterize informal workers in various dimensions that include socio-demographic characteristics, characteristics of the firm and job satisfaction measures. The main objective is to understand what types of individuals belong to formal and informal sectors, study the incentives and motivations of workers for belonging to one or other segment of the labor market, and analyze the consequences of not being covered by the regulatory framework. In doing this, we hope to gain some understanding about how different policy interventions could influence individuals´ occupation choices and workers´ well-being. In this paper, we study the extent and nature of informality in Colombia by using the new chapter on informality in the Encuesta Continua de Hogares (ECH) from August 2006 to December 2006, which includes new questions deepening the information on coverage of social protection benefits, labor market trajectories, and motivations for sector of employment. The availability of these new data allows us to measure informality in several ways and understand the differences and implications of using various definitions. We show that social security contributions is a reasonable measure of informality as it is a good indicator that the individual has the entire package of benefits associated with formal employment. We then use this definition of informality to characterize informal workers in various dimensions that include socio-demographic characteristics, characteristics of the firm and job satisfaction measures. The main objective is to understand what types of individuals belong to formal and informal sectors, study the incentives and motivations of workers for belonging to one or other segment of the labor market, and analyze the consequences of not being covered by the regulatory framework. In doing this, we hope to gain some understanding about how different policy interventions could influence individuals´ occupation choices and workers´ well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernal Raquel, 2009. "The Informal Labor Market in Colombia: identification and characterization," REVISTA DESARROLLO Y SOCIEDAD, UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES-CEDE, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:col:000090:005863
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://economia.uniandes.edu.co/revistadys/Articulo63_5.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Camilo Mondragón-Vélez & Ximena Peña & Daniel Wills, 2010. "Labor Market Rigidities and Informality in Colombia," ECONOMIA JOURNAL, THE LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2010), pages 65-101, August.
    2. Mauricio Cardenas & Raquel Bernal, 2004. "Determinants of Labor Demand in Colombia. 1976-1996," NBER Chapters,in: Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean, pages 229-272 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Juan Carlos Echeverry & Mauricio Santamaria, 2004. "The Political Economy Of Labor Reform In Colombia," DOCUMENTOS CEDE 003618, UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES-CEDE.
    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. Gustavo A. García, 2017. "Labor Informality: Choice or Sign of Segmentation? A Quantile Regression Approach at the Regional Level for Colombia," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 985-1017, November.
    2. Nancy Daza & Luis Fernando Gamboa, 2013. "An approximation to the Informal-formal wage gap in Colombia 2008-2012," DOCUMENTOS DE TRABAJO 010990, UNIVERSIDAD DEL ROSARIO.
    3. Laurence Ball & Nicolás Roux & Marc Hofstetter, 2013. "Unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 397-424, July.
    4. Camilo Mondragón-Vélez & Ximena Peña & Daniel Wills, 2010. "Labor Market Rigidities and Informality in Colombia," ECONOMIA JOURNAL, THE LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2010), pages 65-101, August.
    5. Luis Armando Galvis A., 2012. "Informalidad laboral en las áreas urbanas de Colombia," COYUNTURA ECONÓMICA, FEDESARROLLO, June.
    6. Ramon Antonio, Rosales Alvarez & Jorge Andres, Perdomo Calvo & Carlos Andres, Morales Torrado & Jaime Alejandro, Urrego Mondragon, 2009. "Fundamentos de econometría intermedia: Teoría y aplicaciones
      [Intermediate economics: Theory and applications]      ," MPRA Paper 37183, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Javier Armadno Pineda & Carlos Eduardo Acosta, 2011. "Calidad Del Trabajo: Aproximaciones Teóricas Y Estimación De Un Índice Compuesto," Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 29(65), pages 60-105, Junio.
    8. Catalina Granda & Franz Hamann, 2015. "Informality, Saving and Wealth Inequality," BORRADORES DE ECONOMIA 012621, BANCO DE LA REPÚBLICA.
    9. Gustavo Adolfo HERNANDEZ DIAZ, 2011. "Impuestos parafiscales y mercado laboral: Un análisis de Equilibrio General Computable," ARCHIVOS DE ECONOMÍA 008954, DEPARTAMENTO NACIONAL DE PLANEACIÓN.
    10. Mehling, Maxie-Lina & Boehm, Frédéric, 2014. "Corruption and Informality: Complements or Substitutes? Qualitative Evidence from Barranquilla, Colombia," MPRA Paper 54817, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Cristina Fernández & Leonardo Villar, 2017. "Taxonomía de la informalidad en América Latina," WORKING PAPERS SERIES. DOCUMENTOS DE TRABAJO 015814, FEDESARROLLO.
    12. Isabelle Joumard & Juliana Londoño Vélez, 2013. "Income Inequality and Poverty in Colombia - Part 1. The Role of the Labour Market," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1036, OECD Publishing.
    13. repec:col:000385:015957 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. repec:bla:labour:v:31:y:2017:i:1:p:59-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Cristina Fernández & Leonardo Villar, 2016. "A Taxonomy of Colombia’s Informal Labor Market," COYUNTURA ECONÓMICA, FEDESARROLLO, vol. 46(1), pages 15-50, June.
    16. Gustavo Adolfo García, 2016. "Agglomeration Economies in the Presence of an Informal Sector. The Colombian Case," DOCUMENTOS CEDE 014575, UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES-CEDE.
    17. Gustavo Hernández, 2012. "Payroll Taxes and the Labor Market: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 49(1), pages 99-123, May.
    18. Luz Adriana Florez, 2015. "The Search and Matching Equilibrium in an Economy with an Informal Sector: A Positive Analysis of Labour Market Policies," REVISTA DESARROLLO Y SOCIEDAD, UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES-CEDE, August.
    19. Luis E. Arango & Luz A. Flórez, 2017. "Informalidad laboral y elementos para un salario mínimo diferencial por regiones en Colombia," Borradores de Economia 1023, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    20. Nancy Daza & Luis Fernando Gamboa, 2013. "Informal-formal wage gaps in Colombia," Working Papers 301, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    21. David A. Hurtado & Philipp Hessel & Mauricio Avendano, 2017. "The hidden costs of informal work: lack of social protection and subjective well-being in Colombia," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 62(2), pages 187-196, March.
    22. Paola Roldán Vásquez & Carlos Ospino Hernández, 2009. "¿Quiénes terminan en la informalidad?: Impacto de las características y el tiempo de búsqueda," REVISTA DE ECONOMÍA DEL CARIBE 007124, UNIVERSIDAD DEL NORTE.
    23. Arturo Antón, 2014. "The effect of payroll taxes on employment and wages under high labor informality," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-23, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Informality; pension; health; job satisfaction;

    JEL classification:

    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

    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:col:000090:005863. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Universidad De Los Andes-Cede). General contact details of provider: .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.