Articles

Temporary work visas as US-Haiti development cooperation: a preliminary impact evaluation

We report a small-sample, preliminary evaluation of the economic impact of temporary overseas work by Haitian agricultural workers. This work occurs in the USA in the context of a pilot program designed as a f...

Authors: Michael A. Clemens and Hannah Postel

Psychosocial competencies and risky behaviours in Peru

We use a unique longitudinal dataset from Peru to investigate the relationship between psychosocial competencies related to the concepts of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and aspirations, and a number of risky be...

Authors: Marta Favara and Alan Sanchez

Childhood health and educational investment under risk

A huge literature shows that childhood health and educational attainment are highly correlated. However, estimates for the effect of childhood health on educational attainment under risk generally confound the...

Authors: Neha Kumra

Pathways from school to work in the developing world

This paper uses novel micro data from the ILO-STWT surveys to provide evidence on the duration, endpoint, and determinants of the transition from school to work in a sample of 23 low- and middle-income countri...

Authors: Marco Manacorda, Furio Camillo Rosati, Marco Ranzani and Giuseppe Dachille

How Large are Earnings Penalties for Self-Employed and Informal Wage Workers?

This paper examines the earnings penalties and premiums associated with different types of employment in 73 countries. Workers are divided into four categories: non-professional own-account workers, employers ...

Authors: T. H. Gindling, Nadwa Mossaad and David Newhouse

Are you (not) expecting? The unforeseen benefits of job training on teenage pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy in the Dominican Republic represents a persistent development challenge. This paper uses data from a randomized impact evaluation of the youth training program Juventud y Empleo, which includ...

Authors: Rafael Novella and Laura Ripani

Decomposition analysis of earnings inequality in rural India: 2004–2012

We analyze the changes in earnings of paid workers (wage earners) in rural India from 2004/05 to 2011/12. Real earnings increased at all percentiles, and the percentage increase was larger at the lower end. Co...

Authors: Shantanu Khanna, Deepti Goel and René Morissette

The role of the firm in worker wage dispersion: an analysis of the Ghanaian manufacturing sector

This paper uses a linked employer-employee dataset from the Ghanaian manufacturing sector to analyze earnings dispersion in Ghana from 1992 to 2003, a period post extensive economic reforms. I find that varian...

Authors: Somdeep Chatterjee

The differential impact of employment in agriculture on wages for rural and non-rural Palestine

This paper investigates the differential impact of employment in agriculture on rural and non-rural wages using the quarterly labor force survey (LFS) collected by the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics (P...

Authors: Yousef Daoud and Belal Fallah

Introducing the Tunisia Labor Market Panel Survey 2014

This paper introduces the Tunisia Labor Market Panel Survey (TLMPS) of 2014, the first round of a publicly available nationally representative longitudinal household survey. We provide a description of the sam...

Authors: Ragui Assaad, Samir Ghazouani, Caroline Krafft and Dominique J. Rolando

Two tales of contraction: gender wage gap in Georgia before and after the 2008 crisis

This paper examines the contraction in the gender wage gap in Georgia between 2004 and 2011. Behind the continuous decline at the mean lies a change in the shape of the gender wage gap across the wage distribu...

Authors: Tamar Khitarishvili

Decomposing inequality changes in Uruguay: the role of formalization in the labor market

During the first decade of the twentieth century, the Uruguayan labor market showed a significant decline in wage inequality and in the incidence of labor informality, while similar changes also took place in ...

Authors: Verónica Amarante, Rodrigo Arim and Mijail Yapor

The effects of youth training on risk behavior: the role of non-cognitive skills

This paper uses unique experimental data from a youth training program in the Favelas, Brazil, to examine whether youth training programs can prevent treatment recipients from engaging in risk behavior—i.e., ciga...

Authors: Carla Calero and Sandra V. Rozo

Erratum to: Demographic changes, educational improvements, and earnings in Brazil and Mexico

Authors: Ernesto F. L. Amaral, Bernardo L. Queiroz and Júlia A. Calazans

Moving out of the bottom of the economy? Constraints to firm transition in the Indian informal manufacturing sector

The predominant type of firms in developing countries is small family firms and the self-employed in the informal sector. Very few family firms make the transition to larger firms employing non-family labour. ...

Authors: Rajesh SN Raj and Kunal Sen

The impact of soft skills training on female youth employment: evidence from a randomized experiment in Jordan

Employers around the world complain that youth lack the soft skills needed for success in the workplace. In response, a number of employment programs have begun to incorporate soft skills training, but to date...

Authors: Matthew Groh, Nandini Krishnan, David McKenzie and Tara Vishwanath

Regional variation of the minimum wages in China

This paper analyzes the regional variation of minimum wage in China. We first introduce the institutional background of China’s minimum-wage policy and then describe the regional variation of the minimum wages...

Authors: Chunbing Xing and Jianwei Xu

Female labor force participation and child education in India: evidence from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

We exploit the implementation of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to identify exogenous shifts in mothers’ labor force participation and its impact on their children’s educational outcomes. U...

Authors: Farzana Afridi, Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay and Soham Sahoo

The effect of doubling the minimum wage on employment: evidence from Russia

We take advantage of a natural experiment in the minimum wage setting in Russia to study the employment consequences of large hikes in the minimum wage. In September 2007, the Russian government raised the fed...

Authors: Alexander Muravyev and Aleksey Oshchepkov

Wage inequality and informality: evidence from Mexico

While several studies have documented the expansion of the informal sector and its detrimental impact on development, few have noted that informality and wage inequality tend to move together. Using Mexico as ...

Authors: Chiara Binelli

Disability and employment across Central and Eastern European Countries

We contribute to the scarce literature focusing on the life outcomes of disabled people in Central and Eastern European Countries by estimating the effects of disability on employment probabilities for six Cen...

Authors: Chiara Mussida and Dario Sciulli

Job creation and trade in manufactures: industry-level analysis across countries

This paper examines industry-level responses of manufacturing employment in the context of globalization using a large sample of developed, developing, and transition economies. We find that developing countri...

Authors: Admasu Shiferaw and Degol Hailu

The sources of wage growth in a developing country

What are the sources of wage growth in developing countries? In the USA, general labor market experience is the key source of wage growth, with job seniority playing a smaller role. By contrast, in Indonesia, ...

Authors: Ioana Marinescu and Margaret Triyana

The demand for, and impact of, youth internships: evidence from a randomized experiment in Yemen

This paper evaluates a youth internship program in Yemen. We examine the demand for the program and find an oversupply of graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and a relative undersupp...

Authors: David McKenzie, Nabila Assaf and Ana Paula Cusolito

Demographic changes, educational improvements, and earnings in Brazil and Mexico

This paper estimates the association of demographic and educational changes with earnings and returns to schooling of male workers in Brazil and Mexico. Our analysis takes into account demographic, educational...

Authors: Ernesto F. L. Amaral, Bernardo L. Queiroz and Júlia A. Calazans

Minimum wage violations in Honduras

This article studies minimum wage non-compliance in Honduras, a dual labor market with high wage floors that are weakly enforced. However, rather than just counting how many workers earn sub-minimum wages, it ...

Authors: Andrés Ham

Does the minimum wage reduce wage inequality? Evidence from Thailand

Most of the minimum wage literature in developing countries provides supporting evidence of its effectiveness in reducing wage inequality. Using minimum wage data from Thailand (1985–2010), I find rather mixed...

Authors: Attakrit Leckcivilize

Impact of minimum wage on gender wage gaps in urban China

This paper provides evidence on whether the minimum wage (MW) has affected gender wage gaps in urban China. Several major conclusions emerge. First, from 1995 to 2007, the proportion of workers whose wages wer...

Authors: Shi Li and Xinxin Ma

Minimum wage effects on employment and working time of Chinese workers——evidence based on CHNS

This paper examines the impact of minimum wage policies on employment, income, and working time of Chinese workers. Using data from China Health and Nutrition Survey, we focus on identifying the effects of min...

Authors: Wenkai Sun, Xianghong Wang and Xiaoxi Zhang

Partial minimum wage compliance

In many developing countries, a significant portion of the wage distribution is found below the legal minimum wage. In order to fully understand the nature of this non-compliance, we need to compare the counte...

Authors: Haroon Bhorat, Ravi Kanbur and Benjamin Stanwix

Do minimum wages affect employment? Evidence from the manufacturing sector in Indonesia

This paper investigates the impact of minimum wages on employment and wages in Indonesian manufacturing firms between 1993 and 2006. It shows that within firms, the employment effects of minimum wage hikes is ...

Authors: Ximena Del Carpio, Ha Nguyen, Laura Pabon and Liang Choon Wang

Compliance with legal minimum wages and overtime pay regulations in China

We use a matched firm-employee data set to examine the extent of compliance with minimum wage and overtime pay regulations in Chinese formal sector firms. We find evidence that there is broad compliance with l...

Authors: Linxiang Ye, TH Gindling and Shi Li

Uncovering the impact of intergenerational income mobility on interpersonal trust

Alluding to theories about relative economic status and behavior, this paper studies if relative income mobility, or the intergenerational change in income positions, affects interpersonal trust. Empirically, ...

Authors: Anna E. Shaleva

The impact of minimum wages on informal and formal labor market outcomes: evidence from Indonesia

This paper studies the effects of minimum wages on informal and formal sector wages and employment in Indonesia between 1997 and 2007. Applying fixed-effects methods, the estimates suggest that minimum wages h...

Authors: Maike Hohberg and Jann Lay

Bound to lose, bound to win? The financial crisis and the informal-formal sector earnings gap in Serbia

While the informal sector has received widespread attention in academic and policy arenas in recent decades, knowledge gaps and controversies remain. By examining the incidence and determinants of the formal-i...

Authors: Niels-Hugo Blunch

Under-provision of private training by MENA firms: what to Do about It?

This paper shows that firms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) provide training to their workers less frequently than firms in other regions and yet seem to be more in need of it. Utilizing firm level ...

Authors: Zara Liaqat and Jeffrey B. Nugent

Integrating mobile phone technologies into labor-market intermediation: a multi-treatment experimental design

This study investigates the causal impacts of integrating mobile phone technologies into traditional public labor-market intermediation services on employment outcomes. By providing faster, cheaper and up-to-d...

Authors: Ana C Dammert, Jose Galdo and Virgilio Galdo

Creating and destroying jobs across East Asia Pacific: a country-level analysis on wages, exports, finance, regulation and infrastructure

This paper is the first to analyse a much broader range of correlates of job growth simultaneously for each country individually across all 12 East Asian and Pacific countries with stratified randomised enterp...

Authors: Alexander Krauss

Informal self-employment in Kazakhstan

We use data from the Kazakhstan Labour Force Survey (KLFS) for the period 2006–2011 to examine factors that determine informality amongst self-employed men and women. In addition, the paper examines the respon...

Authors: Altay Mussurov and G Reza Arabsheibani

Investing in formal on-the-job training: are SMEs lagging much behind?

In a modern economy, the investment in human capital by firms is crucial to foster technological adoption and foster productivity growth. This paper analyzes the correlation between firm size and the investmen...

Authors: Rita K Almeida and Reyes Aterido

Court-ship, kinship and business: a study on the interaction between the formal and the informal institutions and its effect on entrepreneurship

In this paper we theoretically and empirically examine how the interaction between the formal court system and the informal loan network affects a household’s decision to start a business. We find that when th...

Authors: Tanika Chakraborty, Anirban Mukherjee and Sarani Saha

The effects of electrification on employment in rural Peru

We study the effects of a rural electrification program on employment in Peru. Taking advantage of the program’s roll-out across districts over time, we adopt differences-in-differences and fixed-effects strat...

Authors: Rosamaría Dasso and Fernando Fernandez

The effect of children on female labor force participation in urban Iran

This paper estimates the effect of having children on labor force participation of mothers in urban Iranian areas. I exploit sex composition of children as an exogenous source of variation in family size to ac...

Authors: Ebrahim Azimi

Social-family network and self-employment: evidence from temporary rural–urban migrants in China

We hypothesize that individuals with a larger social-family network are more likely to choose self-employment. We test this hypothesis using data on temporary rural–urban migrants in China. The size of a migra...

Authors: Junfu Zhang and Zhong Zhao

Economic development and female labor participation in the Middle East and North Africa: a test of the U-shape hypothesis

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is known for having low female labor market participation rates compared with its level of economic development. A possible explanation is that countries in this ...

Authors: Paolo Verme

Conditional cash transfer and informality in Brazil

This study analyses the impact of Bolsa Família (a Brazilian conditional cash transfer programme) in the allocation of labour inputs regarding formal and informal activities. The methodology relies on a discon...

Authors: Ana Luiza Neves de Holanda Barbosa and Carlos Henrique Leite Corseuil

Mandatory costs by firm size thresholds: firm location, growth and death in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s Termination of Employment of Workmen Act (TEWA) requires that firms with 15 or more workers justify layoffs and provide generous severance pay to displaced workers, with smaller firms being exempte...

Authors: Babatunde O Abidoye, Peter F Orazem and Milan Vodopivec

Formal sector subcontracting and informal sector employment in Indian manufacturing

Using nationally representative survey data of Indian manufacturing enterprises spanning the period 1995–2006, we analyze the link between formal sector subcontracting and informal sector employment. A novelty...

Authors: Ana I Moreno-Monroy, Janneke Pieters and Abdul A Erumban

In search of opportunities? The barriers to more efficient internal labor mobility in Ukraine

Ukraine’s economy lacks dynamism, and this is both the cause and the effect of people not moving across the regions. The rate at which Ukrainians move from one region to another within the country is only half...

Authors: Johannes Koettl, Olga Kupets, Anna Olefir and Indhira Santos

The effect of payroll taxes on employment and wages under high labor informality

This paper evaluates the effects of a fall in payroll taxes on employment and wages in the presence of high labor informality. For that purpose, the paper examines a recently approved tax reform in Colombia es...

Authors: Arturo Antón