This paper aims at discussing the implications of informality in Brazil by presenting new evidence on value added, occupations, and in labor productivity in the formal and informal sectors, disaggregated by economic activity. Moreover, we developed counterfactual exercises for these variables in...

In this paper we discuss the evolution of labor productivity in the formal, informal and other households units sectors disaggregated by economic activity. Based on a modified shift-share that deals with the loss of additivity problem, we found that aggregate productivity grew 7% between 2001...

This paper develops a framework for performing ex ante evaluations of the micro (at the firm level) and macro impacts of formalization policies. I estimate the model and use it analyze the two main policy approaches towards informality: increasing the costs of informality (the stick), and...

This paper provides a preliminary analysis of the potential impacts from a formalization policy introduced in Brazil targeted at micro entrepreneurs with at most one employee. Our goal is to provide evidence to shed light on the following points: i) Did the program fostered micro...