By Choice or by Force? Exploring the Nature of Informal Employment in Urban Mexico

Robert Duval Hernández ()
Additional contact information
Robert Duval Hernández: Open University of Cyprus
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Robert Duval-Hernandez

No 14278, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using a special module of the 2015 Mexican Labour Force Survey with information on workers' preferences for jobs with social security coverage, I estimate that 80 per cent of informal workers in large urban areas would prefer to work in a job that provides them with such coverage. The estimation of a discrete choice econometric model which distinguishes between wanting a formal job and the probability of getting one shows that schooling increases the chances of being hired in formal employment and of having higher earnings in it. Women with greater responsibilities at home are less likely to want formal employment, and they also face a lower probability of being hired in such jobs. The findings indicate the segmentation of Mexican labour markets and the rationing of formal jobs, together with the existence of workers who voluntarily participate in informal employment. However, the estimated fraction of involuntary informal workers is quite high.

Keywords: segmentation; labour markets; informal employment; rationing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2021-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-dev and nep-iue
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published as 'Choices and Constraints: The Nature of Informal Employment in Urban Mexico' in: Journal of Development Studies, 2022, 58 (7), 1349-1362

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp14278.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14278

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().