Informal Jobs and Trade Liberalisation in Argentina

Gabriel Montes-Rojas () and Pablo Acosta

Working Papers from Department of Economics, City University London

Abstract: Rapid trade liberalisation can exert profound effects on labour markets. Domestic firms, to sustain competitiveness for survival, could react through cutting labour benefits to achieve cost reductions. Alternatively, trade liberalisation may alter the industry composition of firms changing the aggregate formality rates. This paper studies the relationship between trade liberalisation and informality in Argentina. Using manufacturing industry-level data for 1992-2003, the results confirm the hypothesis that trade increases informality in industries that experience sudden foreign competition. This explains about a third of the increase in informality. Sectors with higher investment ratios are able to neutralize and reverse this effect.

Keywords: informality; trade liberalization; Argentina (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-int and nep-iue
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Informal Jobs and Trade Liberalisation in Argentina (2014)
Working Paper: Informal Jobs and Trade Liberalisation in Argentina (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cty:dpaper:13/10

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