Informal Labor Supply in the United States: New Estimates from the Fragile Families Survey

Samara Gunter

No 1426, Working Papers from Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing.

Abstract: Past studies of the informal economy in the US focused on small geographic areas and select populations. This paper uses a nationally representative panel survey of urban parents, the largest and most diverse data yet, to describe the nature of informal work in the United States. Informal work is pervasive and widespread across demographic characteristics. Approximately 51 percent of urban fathers and 28 percent of urban mothers of young children pursue informal work over a five-year period. Individuals transition in and out of short, intense bouts of informal work. Conditional on participating, men work in the informal sector an average of 22 hours in a usual week (20 for women) and an average of 18 weeks during the year (18 for women).

Keywords: work; parents; urban mothers; young children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D63 I00 I32 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-10
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/sites/fragilefamilies/files/wp12-16-ff.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:pri:crcwel:wp12-16-ff.pdf

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bobray Bordelon ().