We model decisions with respect to formality or informality for entrepreneurs in a newindustry for a developing economy. We show that informality allows a leader to explore,without significant sunk costs, the potential profitability of the industry; that is, informality maybe a stepping stone,...

This paper analyses how governance or institutional quality and tax morale affect the shadoweconomy, using an international country panel and also within country data. The literaturestrongly emphasizes the quantitative importance of these factors to understand the level andchanges of shadow...

This paper examines the role of work-life balance practices (WLB) in explaining the “paradoxof the contented female worker”. After establishing that females report higher levels of jobsatisfaction than men in the UK, we test whether firm characteristics such as WLB andgender segregation...

Assuming a two-period model with endogenous choices of labour, education, and saving, it is shown to be second-best efficient not to distort the choice of education...

Private wealth holdings are likely to become an increasingly important determinant in the jobexit decision of elderly workers. Net wealth may correlate with worker’s characteristics thatalso determine the exit out of a job. It is therefore important to include a rich set of...

This paper analyses the impact of government grants on labour demand using plant leveldata for manufacturing industry in Ireland. Our data consists of a large sample of plants andtheir complete grant history...

Many aspects of the economic transition which started in 1989 in Poland are by nowcomplete. However, the route Polish governments have so far taken concerning the systemof support for low-income families still implies very different poverty alleviation schemescompared to those found in many...

We estimate the wage penalty associated with working in the South African informal sector.To this end we use a rich data set on non-self employed males that allows one to accuratelydistinguish workers employed in the informal sector from those employed in the formal sectorand link individuals...

Using firm level data on 70,000 enterprises in 107 countries, this paper finds importanteffects of access to finance, business regulations, corruption, and to a lesser extent,infrastructure bottlenecks in explaining patterns of job creation at the firm level. The paperfocuses on how the impact...

Over the last decade house prices increased remarkably in many countries. However, whilein several countries there was an employment boom in the construction sector, in others theshare of employment in this sector did not significantly change...