Latin American labor markets feature large informal sectors. In practice, however, the simple duality formal-informal has many different shades: firms tend to comply more with certain legislation than with other. Recent evidence has suggested that minimum wages have significant effects on the...

This paper analyzes the contribution of the minimum wage to the well documented rise in earnings inequality in Mexico between the late 1980s and the early 2000s. We find that a substantial part of the growth in inequality, and essentially all the growth in inequality in the bottom end, is due to...

Motivations for introducing a statutory minimum wage in developing countries include reducing poverty, advancing social justice, and accelerating growth. Attaining these goals depends on the national context and policy choices. Institutional capacity tends to be limited, so institutional...

This paper analyzes the contribution of the minimum wage to the well documented rise in earnings inequality in Mexico between the late 1980s and the early 2000s. We find that a substantial part of the growth in inequality, and essentially all of the growth in inequality in the bottom end of the...

This paper studies gross worker flows to explain the rise in informality in Brazilian metropolitan labor markets from 1983 to 2002. In particular, we examine the impact of trade and constitutional reforms (that include increased firing costs, tighter restrictions on overtime work, and fewer...

This paper studies gross worker flows to explain the rising informality in Brazilian metropolitan labor markets from 1983-2002. This period covers two economic cycles, several stabilization plans, a far-reaching trade liberalization, and changes in labor legislation through the Constitutional...

Using local variation between municipalities I analyse the degree to which availability and price of high quality publicly subsidised child care affect female employment following maternity leave. Importantly, prices are income dependent and thus likely endogenous, yet by exploiting information...

This paper addresses the question of whether administrative data that are collected for performance monitoring purposes can be used for program evaluation. It argues that under certain circumstances, such data can be used. In particular, data from the state of Washington are used to examine the...

In his February 2002 address to the National Summit on Retirement Savings, President Bush asserted that citizens who invested their Social Security contributions in stocks over the past forty-five years would have more than tripled their retirement benefits, and implied that a similar windfall...

Firms' matching contributions to employees' defined contribution pension plans are an important spur to employee retirement savings. Firms frequently match employees' defined contribution pension plan using company stock and prohibit employees from selling; employees sometimes voluntarily invest...