Unemployment insurance : severance payments and informality in developing countries

We analyze whether the introduction or an increase of unemployment insurance (UI hereafter) beneÖts in developing countries reduces the e§ort made by unemployed workers to secure a new job in the formal sector. We adopt a comparative static approach and we consider the consequences of an increase of current UI beneÖts on unemployed workersídecision variables in this same period, i.e. we focus on an intra-temporal trade-o§, allowing us to assume away moral hazard complications. When there is no informal sector, unemployed workers may devote their time between e§ort to secure a new job in the formal sector and leisure. In the presence of an informal sector, unemployed workers may also devote time to remunerated informal activities. Consequently, the amount of e§ort devoted to secure a new (formal) job generates an opportunity cost, which ceteris paribus, reduces the amount of time devoted to remunerated activities in the informal sector. We show that in the presence of an informal sector, an increase of current UI beneÖts decreases this marginal opportunity cost and therefore unambiguously increases the e§ort undertaken to secure a new job in the formal sector. This intra-temporal e§ect is the only one at play in presence of one-shot UI beneÖts or with severance payments mechanism.

Unemployment insurance in the presence of an informal sector

We study the effect of UI benefits in a typical developing country where the informal sector is sizeable and persistent. In a partial equilibrium environment, ruling out the macroeconomic consequences of UI benefits, we characterize the stationary equilibrium of an economy where policyholders may be employed in the formal sector, short-run unemployed receiving UI benefits or long-run unemployed without UI benefits. We perform comparative static exercises to understand how UI benefits affect unemployed worker´s effort to secure a formal job, their labor supply in the informal sector and leisure time. Our model reveals that an increase in UI benefits generates two opposing effects for the short-run unemployed. First, since search efforts cannot be monitored it generates moral hazard behaviours that lower effort. Second, it generates an income effect as it reduces the marginal cost of searching for a formal job and increases effort.The overall effect is ambiguous and depends on the relative strength of these two effects. Additionally, we show that an increase in UI benefits increases the efforts of long-run unemployed workers. We provide a simple simulation exercise which suggests that the income effect pointed out is not necessarily of second-order importance in comparison with moral hazard strength. This result softens the widespread opinion, usually based on the microeconomic/partial equilibrium argument that the presence of dual labor markets is an obstacle to providing UI in developing countries.

Honesty After a Labor Relationship

Al final de un experimento controlado, donde se contrataron asistentes de investigación para la codificación de noticias de los periódicos en línea durante un mes, el experimentador-empleador los invitó a lanzar un dado y reportar el resultado con el fin de pagar en efectivo una cantidad proporcional y lineal en el número reportado, de 1 a 6. Otro grupo (control) de estudiantes similares, fue invitado a realizar la misma tarea, pero sin tener relación laboral previa con el experimentador-empleador. Nuestro grupo de tratamiento mostró niveles promedio más altos de honestidad, ya que la distribución de los números reportados por estos fue menos sesgada a la derecha. Es decir, el grupo de relaciones de trabajo fue más propenso a reportar números que están más cerca de la distribución uniforme (honesta) que el grupo de control, y que otros estudios con este tipo de experimento. Se conjetura que la relación laboral del grupo de tratamiento indujo mayores niveles de honestidad entre los participantes. Una de las posibles razones es que la relación de trabajo creada para el grupo de estudiantes de tratamiento incluía una serie de choques que implicaba la posibilidad de desempleo involuntario, generando incentivos para que los estudiantes interpretaran la honestidad como un rasgo que podría ser valorado en el mercado de trabajo. Este artículo contribuye a la creciente literatura sobre la comprensión de los motivos de la honestidad y el engaño.

Informality in the City: a Theoretical Analysis

This thesis theoretically studies the relationship between the informal sector (both in the labor and the housing market) and the city structure.

Auge minero-energético, enfermedad holandesa e informalidad en Colombia: un análisis a partir de un modelo DSGE

El presente trabajo desarrolla un modelo macroeconómico de equilibrio general dinámico y estocástico (DSGE), con el fin de analizar los efectos macroeconómicos que se derivan de simular un choque positivo al componente estocástico de la productividad del sector minero-energético. Este hecho genera un aumento generalizado de los salarios en el sector formal y en el recaudo tributario, incrementando el consumo total de los miembros del hogar. Esto genera un incremento del precio de los bienes no transables relativo al precio de los bienes transables, disminuyendo la tasa de cambio real (apreciación) y provocando un desplazamiento de los recursos productivos, desde el sector transable (manufacturero) al no-transable, seguido de un aumento en el PIB y empleo formal de la economía. Esto hace que el sector formal agregado absorba trabajadores desde el sector informal a través del subsector formal no-transable, lo que disminuye el PIB informal. En consecuencia, el consumo neto de los miembros informales disminuye, lo que incentiva a que algunos miembros del hogar no se empleen en el sector informal y prefieran quedarse desempleados. Por lo tanto, el resultado final sobre el mercado laboral es una disminución de los trabajadores informales, de los cuales una parte se encuentra en el sector formal, y la parte restante está en condición de desempleo.

Extended local labor markets due to high speed trains : Visualization of estimations in the Swedish national travel demand forecasting tool, SAMPERS

Wider economic benefits resulting from extended geographical mobility is one argument for investments in high-speed rail. More specifically, the argument for high-speed trains in Sweden has been that they can help to further spatially extend labor market regions which in turn has a positive effect on growth and development. In this paper the aim is to cartographically visualize the potential size of the labor markets in areas that could be affected by possible future high-speed trains. The visualization is based on the forecasts of labor mobility with public transport made by the Swedish national mobility transport forecasting tool, SAMPERS, for two alternative high-speed rail scenarios. The analysis, not surprisingly, suggests that the largest impact of high-speed trains results in the area where the future high speed rail tracks are planned to be built. This expected effect on local labor market regions of high-speed trains could mean that possible regional economic development effects also are to be expected in this area. However, the results, in general, from the SAMPERS forecasts indicaterelatively small increases in local labor market potentials.

Discriminação salarial por cor e gênero revisitada: uma abordagem de decomposição contrafactual utilizando regressões quantílicas

A desigualdade salarial, especialmente a resultante da discriminação contra negros e mulheres no mercado de trabalho, é um componente importante da elevada concentração de renda da economia brasileira. Ao contrário da grande maioria dos trabalhos já desenvolvidos nesta área, este trabalho não adota a hipótese de que os efeitos de atributos determinantes do salário são constantes e idênticos para os indivíduos ao longo da distribuição de renda. São estimadas as estruturas salariais para cada percentil da distribuição salarial para homens brancos, homens negros, mulheres brancas e mulheres negras utilizando a técnica de decomposição contrafactual por regressões quantílicas, proposta por Koenker e Bassett (1978) e desenvolvida por Machado e Mata (2004). Isto proporciona uma compreensão mais detalhada e abrangente dos fatores que determinam a remuneração do trabalho para diferentes níveis de renda e fornece uma medida mais completa do grau de discriminação contra os negros e mulheres no mercado de trabalho ao longo da distribuição salarial. Para os três grupos, a discriminação é crescente em relação à posição na distribuição salarial, indicando a dificuldade de se atingir posições melhor remuneradas no mercado de trabalho por parte de mulheres e negros. A discriminação afeta principalmente as mulheres negras, seguidas das mulheres brancas e dos homens negros. Para os homens negros, a discriminação é baixa entre os mais pobres e cresce nos níveis mais altos da distribuição. As mulheres brancas sofrem ao longo de toda a distribuição com maior efeito entre os 15% mais ricos. As mulheres negras sofrem com a discriminação por cor e gênero, estando assim na pior situação entre os grupos. A remuneração da educação estimada para os quatro grupos indica ganhos crescentes conforme a posição na distribuição salarial ampliando a desigualdade salarial intra-grupo, adicionalmente, observa-se uma desvalorização da educação dos negros de ambos os sexos na determinação salarial e que as mulheres sofrem algum tipo de discriminação no que diz respeito à educação apenas nos níveis salariais mais elevados. Os ganhos salariais obtidos com a equalização da escolaridade e formalização entre os grupos discriminados e os homens brancos indicam que, no caso da educação, homens e mulheres negros teriam ganhos ao longo de toda a distribuição, com ênfase entre os mais ricos. Para a formalização, a população nos decis inferiores da distribuição salarial seria a principal beneficiada.

An analysis of quit and dismissal determinants between 1988 and 1999 using the bivariate probit model

Excessive labor turnover may be considered, to a great extent, an undesirable feature of a given economy. This follows from considerations such as underinvestment in human capital by firms. Understanding the determinants and the evolution of turnover in a particular labor market is therefore of paramount importance, including policy considerations. The present paper proposes an econometric analysis of turnover in the Brazilian labor market, based on a partial observability bivariate probit model. This model considers the interdependence of decisions taken by workers and firms, helping to elucidate the causes that lead each of them to end an employment relationship. The Employment and Unemployment Survey (PED) conducted by the State System of Data Analysis (SEADE) and by the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (DIEESE) provides data at the individual worker level, allowing for the estimation of the joint probabilities of decisions to quit or stay on the job on the worker’s side, and to maintain or fire the employee on the firm’s side, during a given time period. The estimated parameters relate these estimated probabilities to the characteristics of workers, job contracts, and to the potential macroeconomic determinants in different time periods. The results confirm the theoretical prediction that the probability of termination of an employment relationship tends to be smaller as the worker acquires specific skills. The results also show that the establishment of a formal employment relationship reduces the probability of a quit decision by the worker, and also the firm’s firing decision in non-industrial sectors. With regard to the evolution of quit probability over time, the results show that an increase in the unemployment rate inhibits quitting, although this tends to wane as the unemployment rate rises.

Microeconomic instability and children's human capital accumulation: the effects of idiosyncratic shocks to father's income on child labor, school drop-outs and repetition rates in Brazil

This paper evaluates the long-run effects of economic instability. In particular, we study the impact of idiosyncratic shocks to father’s income on children’s human capital accumulation variables such as school drop-outs, repetition rates and domestic and non-domestic labor. Although, the problem of child labor in Brazil has declined greatly during the last decade, the number of children working is still substantial. The low levels of educational attainment in Brazil are also a main cause for concern. The large rotating panel data set used allows for the estimation of the impacts of changes in occupational and income status of fathers on changes in his child’s time allocation circumstances. The empirical analysis is restricted to families with fathers, mothers and at least one child between 10 and 15 years of age in the main Brazilian metropolitan areas during the 1982-1999 period. We perform logistic regressions controlling for child characteristics (gender, age, if he/she is behind in school for age), parents characteristics (grade attainment and income) and time and location variables. The main variables analyzed are dynamic proxies of impulses and responses, namely: shocks to household head’s income and unemployment status, on the one hand and child’s probability of dropping out of school, of repeating a grade and of start working, on the other. The findings suggest that father’s income has a significant positive correlation with child’s dropping out of school and of repeating a grade. The findings do not suggest a significant relationship between a father’s becoming unemployed and a child entering the non-domestic labor market. However, the results demonstrate a significant positive relationship between a father becoming unemployed and a child beginning to work in domestic labor. There was also a positive correlation between father becoming unemployed and a child dropping out and repeating a grade. Both gender and age were highly significant with boys and older children being more likely to work, drop-out and repeat grades.

Transformações no mercado de trabalho exigidas aos estagiários e recém-formados em empresas com características da sociedade pós-industrial

O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar até que ponto as transformações do mercado de trabalho, à luz da sociedade pós-industrial, interferem nas competências exigidas aos recém-formados e estagiários pelas empresas, quando da captação de seus recursos humanos, através do estudo de caso do CIEE - Centro de Integração Empresa-Escola. Os objetivos específicos foram: identificar as principais características da Sociedade PósIndustrial e suas influências nas transformações do mercado de trabalho; levantar as interferências dessas influências na captação de recursos humanos pelas empresas; identificar as principais competências pessoais e profissionais requeridas pelas empresas em sua política de recrutamento e seleção de candidatos; investigar se os programas de estágios e de recém-formados são utilizados pelas empresas conveniadas ao CIEE como captação de seus futuros profissionais. Buscou-se no referencial teórico estudar e analisar as características da sociedade, desde o período pré-industrial até o pós-industrial, delimitadas por Daniel Bell apud De Masi (1999:49). Através de subcapítulos foram selecionadas as características que poderiam corroborar na identificação da influência dessas transformações de forma a aprofundá-las com outros autores, como: as instituições básicas; os recursos principais; a estrutura profissional; o local típico; e o fator de mobilidade. No referencial teórico investigaram-se, ainda, alguns elementos da "sociedade centrada no mercado" tratada por alguns teóricos. Através das demandas de vagas do CIEE para estagiários e recém-formados identificou-se elementos da sociedade pós-industrial para confrontá-los com as competências exigidas. A metodologia utilizada foi quanto aos fins, estudo de caso, descritiva e explicativa, analisando as demandas das competências exigidas dos profissionais, estagiários, recém-formados através das empresas conveniadas ao CIEE. Quanto aos meios, foram realizadas pesquisas bibliográficas, documentais e telematizada, bem como uma pesquisa de campo para coleta de dados através de questionários e de entrevistas individuais aplicados ao público atendido pelo CIEE. O universo da pesquisa foi de empresas privadas e de grande porte. A amostra foi selecionada a partir da estratificação em sete regiões metropolitanas do Brasil, onde também encontram-se unidades do CIEE, cujas cidades apresentam o maior percentual de emprego formal no país, tendo como fonte a Geografia de Mercado. A amostra foi por acessibilidade e por tipicidade, em função do caso CIEE, totalizando 400 pessoas entrevistadas. O trabalho obteve como resultado a identificação de elementos das transformações do mercado de trabalho, à luz da sociedade pós-industrial, tal como o previsto por Bell apud De Masi, evidenciando que as empresas estão contratando estagiários e recém-formados com o mesmo nível de exigência quando da contratação de profissionais. As habilidades comportamentais (atitudes) identificadas neste estudo denotam uma forte tendência das empresas, à luz da razão substantiva, de exigir de seus recursos humanos competências tais como: iniciativa, criatividade, dinamismo, bom relacionamento interpessoal e facilidade para trabalhar em equipe, sendo pré-requisitos complementares à formação acadêmica.

Trabalho infantil no Brasil: determinantes da redução entre 2003 e 2011 e efeitos sobre a escolaridade e o rendimento na vida adulta

The hypothesis that child labor impacts future income generation negatively, for it harms the formal acquisition of education, is widely accepted by the existing literature on this issue. However, some researchers agree that labor might be beneficial to teenagers once they can develop skills, acquire job experience, or even help them to afford their own education acquisition. Thus, the main goal of this study is to assess if there is an age which the negative impact of the early access to the labor market over income and the conclusion of high school, during the adulthood of Brazilian people, becomes positive. To do so, PNADs (Pesquisas Nacionais de Amostra de Domicílios), a National Census of Household Samples, issues 1992 to 2011, were utilized plus the employment of an econometric technique called pseudo-panel. For this analysis, generations of people born between 1982 and 1991 were observed from the ages 10 to 17 (child labor) and from the ages 20 to 29 (conclusion of high-school & income). The results show that starting at the age of 15, the negative effect of an early access to the labor market over income, between ages 20-29, becomes positive. As per high-school, it was observed that accessing the labor market before the age 15 diminishes the probability for an individual to conclude high school before the age 21. From this age on, labor does not have a negative impact anymore. The second goal of this study is to assess how much of the reduction of the child labor occurrence in Brazil for the past years is due to changes of economic and demographic characteristics of children and families. For these analyses PNADs - National Census of Household Samples, issues 2003 to 2011, were employed plus the methodology of decomposition that divides the variation of child labor into 2 components: (a) changing of the probability of children with the same characteristics (intragroup) to start working – access labor market & (b) changing of the distribution of characteristics (intergroups). The results show that the reduction of the child labor occurrence is due, mainly, to changes on the probabilities. In general terms, the occurrence of child labor took place, more significantly, among individuals of the ages 15 to 17 & household heads with less education. Besides the characteristics mentioned, the reduction between non-white individuals was also significant among individuals from 4-member families. The results show that the reduction of child labor took place, mainly, among children and teenagers from non-white and poor families.

Child labor and learning

This paper investigates the impact of working while in school on learning outcomes through the use of a unique micro panel dataset of Brazilian students. The potential endogeneity is addressed through the use of di erence-in-di erence and instrumental variable estimators. A negative e ect of working on learning outcomes in both math and Portuguese is found. The e ects of child work range from 3% to 8% of a standard deviation decline in test score which represents a loss of about a quarter to a half of a year of learning on average. We also explore the minimum legal age to entry in the labor market to induce an exogenous variation in child labor status. The results reinforce the detrimental e ects of child labor on learning. Additionally, it is found that this e ect is likely due to the interference of work with the time kids can devote to school and school work.

Labor supply, risk aversion and economic refrom in China

Economic reform in China has created a small, but fast-growing private sector that has spurred rapid productivity growth. Growth of the private sector is predicated upon continued labor movements away from state-run industries and into private firms. This paper presents a theory of labor market sectoral choice demonstrating that three factors determine private sector labor supply-the difference in wages between the state and private sectors, private sector wage risk and risk aversion. Estimation of the model using survey data provides strong support for the theory. We find that the riskiness of private sector earnings has a greater effect in discouraging workers from taking jobs in private firms than the wage premi um has in attracting workers.

Perspectivas sobre o teletrabalho no contexto da administração pública brasileira: um anteprojeto

The job market today, undergoes transformations necessary for employees and employers. Coupled with technological progress, a large degree of connectivity and a new profile of workers opened up many opportunities and relevant aspects that have changed the way of working and their relations in several countries, including Brazil. This technological progress has provided contemporary workers to pursue alternative working outside of the workplace, the office and outside your residence without physical boundaries. Also provided the change in culture of both organizations, as employees, without compromising the Brazilian formal contractual character played by CLT or the Unified Contracting Regime. The emergence of this new type of worker needs to be inserted in the labor market respecting their peculiarities, either by private or public companies. Through a historical review of labor relations and their transformations over time, this research makes a brief reflection and analysis about telework in the Brazilian public administration, implementation, acceptance, advantages, disadvantages, difficulties, external and internal reflections, cultural impact, among others, that this "new" way of working brings to Brazilian society and the various levels of government.

Environmental regulation, technology adoption and structural transformation: evidence from Brazilian sugarcane industry

We estimate the effects of the adoption of mechanized agriculture led by a new environmental regulation on structural change of local labor markets within a large emerging country, Brazil. In 2002, the state of S\~{a}o Paulo passed a law outlying the timeline to end sugarcane pre-harvest burning in the state. The environmental law led to the fast adoption of mechanized harvest. We investigate if the labor intensity of sugarcane production decreases; and, if so, if it leads to structural changes in the labor market. We use satellite data containing the type of sugarcane harvesting -- manual or mechanic harvest -- paired with official labor market data.%, also geomorphometric data base for our instrumental variable correction. We find suggestive evidence that mechanization of the field led to an increase in utilization of formal workers and a reduction in formal labor intensity in the sugarcane sector. This is partially compensated by an increase in the share of workers in other agricultural crops and in the construction and services sector. Although we find a reduction in employment in the manufacturing sector, the demand generated by the new agro-industries affected positively the all sectors via an increase in workers' wage.