While results are starting to emerge, not much is known yet about the dynamics of the labormarkets of the former Eastern economies, especially in the context of the current FinancialCrisis. Arguably, this is mainly due to paucity of (panel) data. By examining labor markettransitions, earnings...

This paper examines changes in individual earnings during positive and negative growthperiods in three Latin American economies: Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela. We askwhether those individuals who start in the best economic position are those who experiencethe largest earnings gains or the...

We study the impact of tax and minimum wage reforms on the incidence of informality. Togauge the incidence of informality, we use measures of the extent of tax evasion, the extentof minimum wage non-compliance, and the size of the informal workforce. Our approachallows us to examine (i) the...

With the beginnings of a worldwide burgeoning development of matched firm-employee data,it is worthwhile to examine the possibilities for using these data...

International comparisons of minimum-wage levels have largely focused on the gross valueof minimum wages, ignoring the effects of taxation on both labour costs and the net incomeof employees. This paper presents estimates of the tax burdens facing minimum-wageworkers. These are used as a basis...

In 1958 Jacob Mincer pioneered an important approach to understand how earnings aredistributed across the population. In the years since Mincer’s seminal work, he as well as hisstudents and colleagues extended the original human capital model, reaching importantconclusions about a whole array...

We consider the welfare effects of skilled worker emigration in a context where skilled labor plays a role in product design. We show such emigration can benefit the residents left behind, even when consumers tastes exhibit a form of home bias...

This paper analyzes the cyclical properties of worker flows in Brazil and Mexico, two important developing countries with large unregulated or "informal" sectors. It generates three stylized facts that are critical to the accurate modeling of the sector and which suggest the need to rethink the...

High levels of employment protection reduce hiring and firing and have a theoretically ambiguous effect on the employment level. Immigrants, being new to the labor market, may be less aware of employment protection regulations and less likely to claim their rights, which may create a gap between...

According to recent and largely untested theories, unemployment benefits (UBs) could improve the extent and quality of job reallocation even at the cost of increasing unemployment. Using yearly panel data from a large number of countries, we evaluate empirically the relationship between...