Political Change and Informality: Evidence from the Arab Spring

Ahmed Elsayed and Jackline Wahba

No 11245, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: This paper examines informality during the political and economic turmoil that accompanied the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt. The paper focuses on unprotected employment and the extent to which it changed by educational level right after the January Uprising of 2011. We find that over time and particularly after the revolution, informal employment has increased for both high- and low-educated workers however, through different paths: high educated were more likely to be stuck in informality, whilst low-educated formal workers were more likely to lose their contracts. The results suggest a high level of rigidity in the Egyptian labor market even in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Keywords: Arab Spring; informal employment; job contracts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J23 J24 J31 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2017-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-dev, nep-hme, nep-iue, nep-lma and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published as 'Political Change and Informality' in: Economics of Transition, 2019, 27 (1), 31 - 66

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Journal Article: Political change and informality: Evidence from the Arab Spring (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11245

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