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Do workers in Chile choose informal employment? A dynamic analysis of sector choice

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  • Packard, Truman G.

Abstract

The degree to which a labor market is segmented and jobs in the formal sector of the economy are rationed is critical to the analysis of coverage of social insurance and pensions. Using unique panel data spanning the 1998-99 contraction in Chile, the author finds little evidence that self-employment is the residual sector of a dualistic labor market, as is often depicted in the literature. Data on transitions between sectors show that self-employment is not a free-entry sector, and that entrepreneurs can be"pushed"out of self-employment just as others are pushed out of formal employment during economic downturns. But employment without a contract does exhibit many of the features of the free-entry, employment safety net depicted in the dualistic literature. An annex to this paper presents supportive evidence from static analysis of selection-corrected wage differentials and a comment on the drawbacks of this approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Packard, Truman G., 2007. "Do workers in Chile choose informal employment? A dynamic analysis of sector choice," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4232, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4232
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Pagés, Carmen & Stampini, Marco, 2009. "No education, no good jobs? Evidence on the relationship between education and labor market segmentation," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 387-401, September.
    2. Krasniqi Besnik A. & Williams Colin C., 2017. "Explaining individual- and country-level variations in unregistered employment using a multi-level model: evidence from 35 Eurasian countries," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 12(2), pages 61-72, December.
    3. Colin C. Williams, 2013. "Evaluating cross-national variations in the extent and nature of informal employment in the European Union," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5-6), pages 479-494, November.
    4. 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.
    5. Laure Pasquier-Doumer, 2013. "Intergenerational Transmission of Self-Employed Status in the Informal Sector: A Constrained Choice or Better Income Prospects? Evidence from Seven West African Countries," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), vol. 22(1), pages 73-111, January.
    6. Laure Pasquier-Doumer, 2013. "Intergenerational Transmission of Self-Employed Status in the Informal Sector: A Constrained Choice or Better Income Prospects? Evidence from seven West-African Countries," Post-Print hal-01651028, HAL.
    7. Goktuna, Bilge Ozturk & Dayangac, Renginar, 2011. "Rethinking the informal labour from an evolutionary point of view," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 609-615.
    8. Colin C. Williams & Sara Nadin, 2010. "Entrepreneurship And The Informal Economy: An Overview," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(04), pages 361-378.
    9. Colin C. Williams, 2013. "Beyond The Formal Economy: Evaluating The Level Of Employment In Informal Sector Enterprises In Global Perspective," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(04), pages 1-21.
    10. Ximena Quintanilla, 2011. "Moving from a Pay as You Go to a Defined Contributions Pension Scheme: Does it Boost Participation in the Formal Labour," Working Papers 48, Superintendencia de Pensiones, revised Sep 2011.
    11. Rosa Abraham, 2017. "Informality in the Indian Labour Market: An Analysis of Forms and Determinants," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 60(2), pages 191-215, June.
    12. Colin C Williams & Anjula Gurtoo, 2011. "Evaluating Women Entrepreneurs In The Informal Sector: Some Evidence From India," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(03), pages 351-369.
    13. Carla Moreno, 2020. "Mandatory savings, informality and liquidity constraints," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 3274-3295.
    14. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7080 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Bargain, Olivier & Magejo, Prudence, 2010. "Is Informality Bad? Evidence from Brazil, Mexico and South Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 4711, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Mboutchouang, Vincent De Paul & Kenneck, Joseph Massil & Mbenga Bindop, Kunz Modeste, 2013. "Transmission Intergénérationelle de l’Entrepreneuriat et Performance des Unités de Production Informelles au Cameroun," MPRA Paper 50133, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Aug 2013.
    17. Richard B. Freeman, 2009. "Labor Regulations, Unions, and Social Protection in Developing Countries: Market distortions or Efficient Institutions?," NBER Working Papers 14789, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Beccaría, Luis Alberto & Groisman, Fernando, 2015. "Informality and labour market segmentation: the case of Argentina," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    19. Casal, María del Pilar & Barham, Bradford L., 2013. "Motherhood wage penalties and labour market segmentation: Evidence from Argentina," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    20. Colin C. Williams & Youssef Youssef, 2014. "Classifying Latin American Economies: A Degree of Informalisation Approach," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 5(3), pages 73-85, May.
    21. 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.
    22. Colin C. Williams & Friedrich Schneider, 2016. "Measuring the Global Shadow Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16551.
    23. Colin C. Williams & Youssef Youssef, 2015. "Theorising Entrepreneurship in the Informal Sector in Urban Brazil: A Product of Exit or Exclusion?," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 24(2), pages 148-168, September.
    24. Colin C. Williams & Sara Nadin, 2012. "Beyond The Commercial Versus Social Entrepreneurship Dichotomy: A Case Study Of Informal Entrepreneurs," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(03), pages 1-17.
    25. Félix Modrego & Dusan Paredes & Gianni Romaní, 2017. "Individual and place-based drivers of self-employment in Chile," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 469-492, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor Markets; Labor Standards; Work&Working Conditions; Labor Management and Relations; Educational Policy and Planning;
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