A multidimensional approach to measuring quality of employment (QoE) deprivation in six central American countries

Pablo Gonzalez, Kirsten Sehnbruch, Mauricio Apablaza, Rocio Mendez Pineda and Verónica Arriagada

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper proposes a methodology for measuring Quality of Employment (QoE) deprivation from a multidimensional perspective in six Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) using a dataset specifically designed to measure employment conditions. Building on previous work on multidimensional poverty and employment indicators, the paper uses the Alkire/Foster (AF) method to construct a synthetic indicator of the QoE at an individual level. It selects four dimensions that must be considered as essential to QoE deprivation: income, job stability, job security and employment conditions. These dimensions then subdivide into several indicators, a threshold for each indicator and dimension is established before defining an overall cut-off line that allows for the calculation of composite levels of deprivation. The results generated by this indicator show that Central American countries can be divided into three distinct and robust performance groups in terms of their QoE deprivation. Overall, approximately 60% of the deprivation levels are attributable to non-income variables, such as occupational status and job tenure. The methodology used can allow policymakers to identify and focus on the most vulnerable workers in a labour market and highlights the fact that having a formal written contract is no guarantee of good job quality, particularly in the case of women.

Keywords: multidimensional indicators research; labour markets; employment; job quality; Latin America; Central America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 N0 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2021-11-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa and nep-isf
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in Social Indicators Research, 1, November, 2021, 158(1), pp. 107 - 141. ISSN: 0303-8300

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/109003/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: A Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Quality of Employment (QoE) Deprivation in Six Central American Countries (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:109003

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