IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v74y2025icp814-828.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond informal employment: Stagnation and disguised employment in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Baltar, Carolina Troncoso
  • Dweck, Esther
  • Marcato, Marília Bassetti
  • Krepsky, Camila Unis

Abstract

This study analyses the Brazilian labour market from 2014 to 2019, focusing on the impact of the country's growth pattern on rising informal and self-employment. After a period of economic growth, Brazil faced a recession (2015–2016) and stagnation (2016–2019). Austerity-driven reforms were implemented, weakening policies aimed at stimulating growth, reducing unemployment, and improving formalization. Using structural decomposition analysis within a demand-driven input-output model, the study examines how changes in demand components affected employment by sector, formalization, and occupational status. Key findings reveal that the slow economic recovery, characterized by limited investment and government spending, led to a significant shift from formal to informal employment and self-employment, especially in service sectors. While discussing the diversity hidden within the occupational category of self-employed workers, the research also explores the specific characteristics of this category, providing insights to understand possible disguised employment as part of a structural transformation.

Suggested Citation

  • Baltar, Carolina Troncoso & Dweck, Esther & Marcato, Marília Bassetti & Krepsky, Camila Unis, 2025. "Beyond informal employment: Stagnation and disguised employment in Brazil," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 814-828.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:74:y:2025:i:c:p:814-828
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2025.06.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X25001079
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2025.06.009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • C67 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Input-Output Models
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    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:eee:streco:v:74:y:2025:i:c:p:814-828. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    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.