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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]

Inequality and informality are two characteristic features of the labour markets of Latin America. However, since 2000 the region has experienced a trend towards labour formalization and a reduction in wage inequality. This article analyses the inflows to formality in four Latin American countries — Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru — and assesses their distributive impacts. This aspect is relevant given that the increase in formal wage earners was particularly marked and it is not possible to determine a priori the sign and intensity of the impact of formalization on wage distribution. Therefore, the link between the two dimensions — inequality and formality — is an empirical question. The results of this analysis show that labour formalization had an important equalizing effect in Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador, but that this was not the case in Peru. Most of the existing literature focuses on the distributive impacts of the returns to education. This study complements the existing literature by showing how the improvement of working conditions contributes to explaining the decreasing trend of inequality observed in Latin America since 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a discussion on one main aspect of the process of designing a multidimensional poverty measure: the selection of the dimensions for which deprivation would be evaluated. A wider goal of this ongoing research is to propose a multidimensional poverty measure that could be applied to official data drawn from existing household surveys. Thus, it is important to emphasize the limitations faced as a result of resting only on data coming from statistical sources that have not been specifically designed for measuring multidimensional poverty. To discuss such issue, alternative estimations for Argentina employing two available household surveys have been carried out, using some methodological criteria that gives evidence on how appropriate the used variables are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En este documento se evalúa la presencia de segmentación en el mercado laboral argentino. El análisis se centra en la comparación de los ingresos de los trabajadores formales e informales, mediante dos enfoques distintos sobre la definición de informalidad. Se comprueba la existencia de una prima formal por medio de la utilización de datos dinámicos y técnicas semiparamétricas. Se analizó el período comprendido entre 1996 y 2006 de todas las zonas urbanas encuestadas. Los resultados obtenidos respaldan la hipótesis de la segmentación del mercado laboral urbano de la Argentina, esto es, que trabajadores que cuentan con probabilidades similares para transitar de un sector a otro perciben ingresos diferentes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour market conditions improved during the 2000s in Latin America, a process that included a reduction in the magnitude of informal employment. A decline of wage inequality was another feature of this period. Both dynamics were particularly intense in Argentina. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role played by the process of formalization of the labour market that occurred in Argentina during that period on the reduction of income inequality, while additionally taking into account other factors that might have also contributed to such dynamics of income inequality. The method employed is a decomposition proposed by Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux, which allows extending the Oaxaca-Blinder approach to decompose some distributive statistics of income between a ‘composition effect’ and a ‘returns effect’. The study concludes that the process of increasing labour market formalization had an equalizing effect over the period, a finding that had not been emphasized in previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Este artículo analiza los cambios en la inestabilidad de los ingresos laborales registrados en el Gran Buenos Aires entre fines del decenio de 1980 y principios del decenio del 2000. Sus objetivos son, por un lado, estudiar el impacto que tuvieron esos cambios sobre diferentes grupos de personas y hogares y, por el otro, evaluar el influjo de la variabilidad de los ingresos corrientes sobre la concentración de los ingresos. Para esto último, se compara el promedio de la desigualdad de los ingresos corrientes con la desigualdad de los ingresos medios (más permanentes). Los resultados obtenidos refuerzan la conveniencia de combinar datos de sección cruzada con otros que sigan las trayectorias de las personas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Desarrollo Económico is the property of Instituto de Desarrollo Economico y Social and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Discusses the economic policy implemented in Argentina between March 1976 to March 1981. Stabilization of instruments from implementation of policy package; Role of political conditions on employment by the Armed Forces on deflationary pressures; Significance of industrial sector on international costs.

El artículo presenta una investigación acerca de la medición de pobreza en la ciudad de Santa Fe, Argentina. El trabajo intenta caracterizar y enumerar los niveles de pobreza e identificar algunos indicadores para familias e individuos. La información viene de encuestas locales de los años 1996/1997 y 2000/2001, y las conclusiones señalan el desempleo y la falta de educación como factores principales.