Poverty and the Labor Market in Venezuela: 1982-1995

The purpose of this paper is to describe the performance of the Venezuelan labor market in the period between 1982 and 1995, and to analyze its impact on the evolution of poverty. This period analyzed is a convulsed one, one within Venezuela that suffered from the consequences of both changes in the international financial market conditions, and a sustained deterioration of economic management. Growth and inflation were highly volatile, real wages fell in a sustained way, and poverty increased dramatically. In this paper, the authors explore the dynamics of the Venezuelan labor market through the use of conceptual framework derived from segmented labor market models such as the Harris-Todaro one; and they create a detailed analysis on the evolution of poverty.