Studies on formal-informal interactions in the labor markets of developing countries claim that economic reform increases the level of informal activity. Although the extent of such claims differs across countries, it is generally believed that reform is likely to depress informal wage by...

Occupational prestige or job status may induce people to remain unemployed even when jobs are available. Thus measured unemployment will always have a voluntary component. Accumulated wealth in a family tends to increase the opportunity cost of job search, more so in a world where job status is...

Occupational prestige or job status may induce people to remain unemployed even when jobs are available. Thus measured unemployment will always have a voluntary component. Accumulated wealth in a family tends to increase the opportunity cost of job search, more so in a world where job status is...

Emigration leads to finite changes in structure of production and sectors vanish because they cannot pay higher wages. Does emigration of one type of labour hurt the other non-emigrating type in this set up? We demonstrate various scenarios when real income of the emigrating and the...

Many studies have explored the connection between trade and poverty theoretically and empirically for the developing world. We offer another look at the possible implications of trade liberalization on urban poverty by using the urban informal sector as a catalyst. The theory shows that trade...

When trade reform contracts protected formal sectors in developing countries and the formal workers move to the informal sector for employment, does that reduce informal wages? Using a 2 × 2 Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson (HOS) structure with formal-informal production organization for the same...

In this paper we examine the consequences of skilled versus unskilled labor migration on the welfare of remaining residents (RR) in an economy characterized by unemployment of unskilled labor. It is established that emigration of unskilled workers necessarily raises both the level of employment...