IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-00820783.html

Heterogeneity in the Egyptian informal labour market: choice or obligation?

Author

Listed:
  • Rawaa Harati

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This paper provides historical and empirical arguments that can explain the development of the Egyptian informal sector. After recalling the various approaches proposed in the literatures, it identifies the configuration that overrides the Egyptian labor market by allowing for the heterogeneity of informal jobs and therefore the existence of different segments within the informal sector using a mixture model. It concludes that the Egyptian informal labor market in 2006 was composed of two segments with a distinct wage equations. This may point to the existence of barriers to entry to each sector, e.g. fixed cost related to social stigma which prevent people from working in the sector which offers them the highest expected wage.

Suggested Citation

  • Rawaa Harati, 2013. "Heterogeneity in the Egyptian informal labour market: choice or obligation?," Post-Print halshs-00820783, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00820783
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00820783
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00820783/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Schneider, Friedrich, 2012. "The Shadow Economy and Work in the Shadow: What Do We (Not) Know?," IZA Discussion Papers 6423, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Günther, Isabel & Launov, Andrey, 2012. "Informal employment in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 88-98.
    4. Simeon Djankov & Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "The Regulation of Entry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 1-37.
    5. Markus Loewe, 2000. "Social Security in Egypt: An Analysis and Agenda for Policy Reform," Working Papers 2024, Economic Research Forum, revised 08 2000.
    6. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, March.
    7. 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.
    8. Murphy, Kevin M & Topel, Robert H, 2002. "Estimation and Inference in Two-Step Econometric Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 88-97, January.
    9. Mahdī, ʻĀliyah., 2002. "Towards decent work in the informal sector the case of Egypt," ILO Working Papers 993661433402676, International Labour Organization.
    10. repec:bla:scandj:v:88:y:1986:i:4:p:643-68 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. James Heckman, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    12. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Ahamada, Ibrahim & Flachaire, Emmanuel, 2010. "Non-Parametric Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199578009.
    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. Floridi, A. & Wagner, N. & Cameron, J., 2016. "A study of Egyptian and Palestine trans-formal firms – A neglected category operating in the borderland between formality and informality," ISS Working Papers - General Series 619, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    2. Hanan Nazier & Racha Ramadan, 2015. "Informality and Poverty: A Causality Dilemma with Application to Egypt," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 5(4), pages 1-4.
    3. Carla Canelas, 2015. "Poverty and informality in Ecuador," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-112, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Carla Canelas, 2019. "Informality and poverty in Ecuador," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1097-1115, December.
    5. Edward Sennoga & Lacina Balma, 2022. "Fiscal sustainability in Africa: Accelerating the post‐COVID‐19 recovery through improved public finances," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(S1), pages 8-33, July.
    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. Carla Canelas, 2015. "Poverty and informality in Ecuador," WIDER Working Paper Series 112, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    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. Arthur Charpentier & Emmanuel Flachaire & Antoine Ly, 2017. "Econom\'etrie et Machine Learning," Papers 1708.06992, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2018.
    2. Aysit Tansel & Elif Oznur Acar, 2016. "The Formal/Informal Employment Earnings Gap: Evidence from Turkey," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Inequality after the 20th Century: Papers from the Sixth ECINEQ Meeting, volume 24, pages 121-154, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Arthur Charpentier & Emmanuel Flachaire & Antoine Ly, 2018. "Économétrie & Machine Learning," Working Papers hal-01568851, HAL.
    4. Elena Kossova & Bogdan Potanin, 2018. "Heckman method and switching regression model multivariate generalization," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 50, pages 114-143.
    5. Ebenezer Lemven Wirba & Fiennasah Annif’ Akem & Francis Menjo Baye, 2021. "Earnings gap between men and women in the informal labor market in Cameroon," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 1466-1491, August.
    6. Aysit Tansel & Elif Oznur Acar, 2016. "The Formal/Informal Employment Earnings Gap: Evidence from Turkey," Research on Economic Inequality,in: Inequality after the 20th Century: Papers from the Sixth ECINEQ Meeting, volume 24, pages 121-154 Emerald Publishing Ltd.
    7. Sandra Nieto & Raúl Ramos, 2013. "Non-Formal Education, Overeducation And Wages," Revista de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Estructura Economica y Economia Publica, vol. 21(1), pages 5-28, Spring.
    8. Chloé Duvivier Duvivier & Mary-Françoise Renard & Shi Li, 2012. "Are workers close to cities paid higher non-agricultural wages in rural China?," CERDI Working papers halshs-00673698, HAL.
    9. Rosen, Harvey S, 1982. "Taxation and On-the-Job Training Decisions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(3), pages 442-449, August.
    10. Joaquin Turmo-Garuz & M.-Teresa Bartual-Figueras & Francisco-Javier Sierra-Martinez, 2019. "Factors Associated with Overeducation Among Recent Graduates During Labour Market Integration: The Case of Catalonia (Spain)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 1273-1301, August.
    11. Michael Fertig & Katja Görlitz, 2012. "Item Nonresponse in Wages: Testing for Biased Estimates in Wage Equations," Ruhr Economic Papers 0333, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    12. Mar, Don, 2005. "Individual characteristics vs. city structural characteristics: explaining self-employment differences among Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos in the United States," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 341-359, May.
    13. Hans Dietrich & Harald Pfeifer & Felix Wenzelmann, 2016. "The more they spend, the more I earn? Firms' training investments and post-training wages of apprentices," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0116, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    14. Lucia Mateos & Ines Murillo & Maria del Mar Salinas, 2014. "Desajuste educativo y competencias cognitivas: efectos sobre los salarios," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 210(3), pages 85-108, September.
    15. Aleksandra Anić & Gorana Krstić, 2019. "What Lies Behind The Gender Wage Gap In Serbia?," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 64(223), pages 137-170, October –.
    16. Pedro Ortín‐Ángel & Vicente Salas‐fumás, 1998. "Agency‐Theory and Internal‐Labor‐Market Explanations of Bonus Payments: Empirical Evidence from Spanish Firms," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 573-613, December.
    17. Colm Harmon & Claire Finn & Arnaud Chevalier & Tarja Viitanen, 2006. "The economics of early childhood care and education : technical research paper for the National Economic and Social Forum," Open Access publications 10197/671, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    18. Aibanskhem Nongspung & Veronica Pala, 2025. "Self-Selection and Private Returns to Education in India: Evidence from NSSO Data," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 23(1), pages 253-283, March.
    19. Muhammad Nauman Malik & Masood Sarwar Awan, 2016. "Analysing Econometric Bias and Non-linearity in Returns to Education of Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 837-851.
    20. Mahfuza Khatun, 2015. "Experience, Education, and Entrepreneurial Success: A View from Bangladesh," Journal of Social and Development Sciences, AMH International, vol. 6(4), pages 71-81.

    More about this item

    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:hal:journl:halshs-00820783. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.