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This paper examines the impact of a rise in oil prices on the wages of workers in the unorganized sector of a developing economy. The model economy is comprised of two non‐traded transport sectors, formal and informal, along with other sectors. The main results that we obtain are as follows. The informal transport sector contracts when fuel price rises and lowers the real income of the informal workers. The per‐unit return to land rises, and the factor readjustments even raise the output of other sectors in the economy. We also show why inclusion of non‐passenger transport services does not alter the main outcomes of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to study the evolution of the Argentinean labor market over the last three decades in the light of an approach that takes into account the structural determinant of the national economic cycle: the relationship between the lag in international productivity and the availability of sources of compensation for it, at each moment in time, under the different models of accumulation. To this end, the dynamics of different relevant labor variables (employment, wages, the evolution of the urban informal sector, and the quality of employment) are analyzed in stages identified according to the general economic dynamics: 1991-2002, 2003-2011, and 2012-2021. The main conclusion is that only in instances of a particularly high flow of ground rent (2008-2011) a genuine improvement in the employment and living conditions of the Argentinean population was achieved, which failed to reverse the pronounced deterioration that had occurred since the mid-1970s. This deterioration was the result of a growing differentiation in the conditions of reproduction of the labor force, which has its correlation in the marked fragmentation that characterizes current Argentinean society vis-à-vis that of the early 1970s, which stood out in the regional panorama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much debate around whether labor informality reflects situations of exclusion or whether it constitutes a valuable alternative for those who work in this sector. This paper contributes to the discussion by comparing the characteristics of those who move from the formal to the informal sector with the characteristics of those who remain in formal sector jobs during the 1995-2019 period in Argentina. Multinomial choice models are used for this purpose. The influence of such movements on the variation of wages is also evaluated. Both sets of evidence reveal that the positions in the informal sector, taken as a whole, do not seem to constitute a desirable destination for those who work in the formal sector. However, there is also evidence of heterogeneity in the informal sector, since the profile of those who move to one of its segments -that of employers- is consistent with the idea of voluntariness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a special module of the 2015 Mexican Labour Force Survey with information on workers' preferences for jobs with social security coverage, it is found 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vigorous growth of the Chinese economy together with its increasingly successful role in international trade may have profoundly impacted developing countries. This study examines the large increase in the international trade exposure of the Brazilian economy during 2000–2012 to assess the impacts of import competition on its manufacturing formal and informal labor markets. In this period, import penetration grew by more than 20 percent in Brazil, and the share of the import penetration originating in China increased from 3 to 20 percent. At the same time, the share of informal workers in manufacturing declined from 27 to approximately 15 percent. Employing a switching regression model and Brazilian household survey data, this study finds that a greater industry-level Chinese and 'rest of the world' import penetration increases the likelihood of jobs becoming informal at different intensities, and these effects are smaller in unskilled-labor intensive industries and manufacturing states. Additionally, both types of import penetration positively impact the average informal wage. In contrast, the estimates suggest that a larger Chinese import penetration reduces average formal wages, while imports from elsewhere have the opposite effect. The results also indicate that the magnitude of the effects on wages are moderated by the unskilled labor intensity of the industry and whether the worker is located in a manufacturing state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]