Informality and Gender Gaps Going Hand in Hand

Vivian Malta, Lisa Kolovich, Angelica Martinez and Marina Tavares

No 2019/112, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: In sub-Saharan Africa women work relatively more in the informal sector than men. Many factors could explain this difference, including women’s lower education levels, legal barriers, social norms and demographic characteristics. Cross-country comparisons indicate strong associations between gender gaps and higher female informality. This paper uses microdata from Senegal to assess the probability of a worker being informal, and our main findings are: (i) in urban areas, being a woman increases this probability by 8.5 percent; (ii) education is usually more relevant for women; (iii) having kids reduces men’s probability of being informal but increases women’s.

Keywords: WP; informal economy; family worker; labor force; working woman; account worker; informal worker; Gender Gaps; sub-Saharan Africa; Senegal; working man; sub-Saharan Africa country; paid worker; Senegalese worker; Women; Gender inequality; Informal employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 2019-05-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-iue
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2019/112

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