Migration as a Substitute for Informal Activities: Evidence from Tajikistan

Ilhom Abdulloev, Ira Gang and John Landon-Lane ()

No 6236, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: How is migration related to informal activities? They may be complementary since new migrants may have difficulty finding employment in formal work, so many of them end up informally employed. Alternatively, migration and informality may be substitutes since migrants' incomes in their new locations and income earned in the home informal economy (without migration) are an imperfect trade-off. Tajikistan possesses both a very large informal sector and extensive international emigration. Using the gap between household expenditure and income as an indicator of informal activity, we find negative significant correlations between informal activities and migration: the gap between expenditure and income falls in the presence of migration. Furthermore, Tajikistan's professional workers ability to engage in informal activities enables them to forgo migration, while low-skilled non-professionals without post-secondary education choose to migrate instead of working in the informal sector. Our empirical evidence suggests migration and informality substitute for one another.

Keywords: Tajikistan; migration; remittances; informal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 O17 P23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2011-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-iue, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published in: Research in Labor Economics, 2012, 34, 205-227

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Related works:
Working Paper: Migration as a Substitute for Informal Activities: Evidence from Tajikistan (2011)
Working Paper: Migration as a Substitute for Informal Activities: Evidence from Tajikistan (2011)
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