IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jitecd/v28y2019i6p732-754.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade liberalization and informality nexus: Evidence from Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Mengyun Wu
  • Jabbar Ul-Haq
  • Naeem uz Zafar
  • Huaping Sun
  • Jingyu Jiang

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of trade openness on informal sector employment during the drastic 1988s trade reforms of Pakistan. It is generally perceived that increased external competition in less developed countries results in as an expansion in informal sector, which has less compliance with labor market regulations. Using micro-level data of Pakistan, we study the adjustments in the employment of informal sector due to trade openness. We find that informality and trade openness are associated. In Pakistan, trade reforms have given rise to employment in the informal sector. Our findings are robust to different trade-related measures. A substantial flexibility in labor market is required to benefit from the gains of liberalization.

Suggested Citation

  • Mengyun Wu & Jabbar Ul-Haq & Naeem uz Zafar & Huaping Sun & Jingyu Jiang, 2019. "Trade liberalization and informality nexus: Evidence from Pakistan," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(6), pages 732-754, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jitecd:v:28:y:2019:i:6:p:732-754
    DOI: 10.1080/09638199.2019.1593489
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09638199.2019.1593489
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09638199.2019.1593489?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 search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Jabbar Ul-Haq & Hubert Visas & Seyedrohollah Ahmadi & Ahmed Raza Cheema, 2020. "Female Earnings in the Apparel Industry Post-MFA: Evidence From Pakistan," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.

    More about this item

    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:taf:jitecd:v:28:y:2019:i:6:p:732-754. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJTE20 .

    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.