This paper studies the relationship between trade liberalization and informality. It is often claimed that increased … find no evidence of a relationship between trade policy and informality. In Colombia, we do find evidence of such a …

simulations to understand how trade affects economic outcomes in the presence of informality. We show that: (1) Trade openness … unambiguously decreases informality in the tradable sector, but has ambiguous effects on aggregate informality. (2) The productivity … when informality is repressed. (4) Repressing informality increases productivity, but at the expense of employment and …

This paper exploits two unique features of China's history to study the effects of access to internal migration …

China strongly restricts rural-rural, urban-urban, and rural-urban migration. The result which this paper documents is …

We analyze the Hukou system of permanent registration in China which many believe has supported growing relative … regions and cities. Our aim is to inject economic modelling into the debate on sources of inequality in China which thus far … geographical divides in China is supported solely by quantity based migration restrictions (urban -- rural areas, rich -- poor …

services as city residents in China. We estimate a spatial overlapping generations model with heterogeneous households to … that offer the potential of decreasing the inequality within China while at the same time increasing the overall level of …

This paper explores the contribution of the structural transformation and urbanization process to China's housing …