We measure labor market frictions using a strategy that bridges design-based and structuralapproaches: estimating an equilibrium search model using reduced-form minimum wageelasticities identified from border discontinuities and fitted with Bayesian and LIML methods.We begin by providing the...

This paper examines the interaction between minimum wage legislation and tax evasion byemployed labor. I develop a model in which firms and workers may agree to report less thanthe true amount of earnings to the fiscal authorities. I show that introducing a minimum wagecreates a spike in the...

In-work benefits are becoming an increasingly relevant labour market policy, graduallyexpanding in scope and geographical coverage. This paper investigates the equilibriumimpact of in-work benefits and contrasts it with the traditional partial equilibrium analysis. Wefind under which conditions...

In view of the demographic trends, most EU countries face the problem of a declining workforce in the future. Understanding the interaction between income support systems (such asunemployment benefits, social assistance, early retirement and pension systems) and totallabor supply is of crucial...

The minimum wage rate has been introduced in many countries as a means of alleviating thepoverty of the working poor. This paper shows, however, that an imperfectly enforcedminimum wage rate causes small firms to face an upward-sloping labor supply schedule.Since this turns these firms into...

The European Social Survey data are used to analyze informal employment at the main jobin 30 countries. Overall, informality decreases from South to West to East to North. However,dependent work without contract is more prevalent in Eastern Europe than in the West,except for Ireland, the UK and...

Two stylized representations are often found in the academic and policy literature oninformality and formality in developing countries. The first is that the informal (or unregulated)sector is more competitive than the formal (or regulated) sector. The second is that contractenforcement is...

We analyze theoretically and empirically the impact of the shadow economy onentrepreneurial entry, utilising 1998-2005 individual-level Global Entrepreneurship Monitordata merged with macro level variables. A simple correlation coefficient suggests a positivelinear link between the size of the...

The transition economies have lower rates of entrepreneurship than are observed in mostdeveloped and developing market economies. The difference is even more marked in thecountries of the former Soviet Union than those of Central and Eastern Europe. We link thesedifferences partly with the...