"This paper studies the causes and consequences of informality and applies the analysis to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. It starts with a discussion on the definition and measures of informality, as well as on the reasons why widespread informality should be of great concern. The...

"This paper applies recent advances in the study of labor market dynamics to a representative developing country with a large informal or unregulated sector, Mexico. It studies quarterly gross flows of workers over a 15-year period that includes two recoveries and recessions, including the...

"A range of alternative empirical definitions of informal activity have been employed in the literature. Choice of definition is often dictated by data availability. Different definitions may imply very different conceptual understandings of informality. In this paper the authors investigate the...

"This paper investigates how enforcement of labor regulation affects the firm's use of informal employment and its impact on firm performance. Using firm level data on informal employment and firm performance, and administrative data on enforcement of regulation at the city level, the authors...

"The authors address the economic impact of the labor force training program (PAFPA) developed for the informal sector in Côte d'Ivoire. The data contain a subsample of the participants in the agricultural sector, tailoring sector, and the electronics sector, and a comparable control group of...

Did the types of jobs that men and women hold change during the recent period of economic reforms in Argentina, Brazil, and Costa Rica? Among both men and women in all three countries (except Brazilian men), workers have become more likely to hold informal wage jobs and less likely to hold...