Immigrant Networks in the Labor Market
Using unique survey data linked to social security records and the large influx of Venezuelan immigrants to Colombia in recent years, this paper provides evidence on the empirical relationships between referral networks and labor market outcomes of immigrants by focusing on the spatial dimension of social interactions. By explicitly accounting for both the urban and […]
Matching and City Size Wage Gaps under the Shadow of Informality: Evidence from Mexico
Larger labor markets provide workers and firms with better opportunities to find each other, enhancing positive assortative matching. We measure the extent of these agglomeration externalities in Mexico, where informal work represents a large share of employment and coexists with formal labor markets. Using a matched employer-employee dataset comprising the near universe of formal workers […]
Quality certification and firm performance. The mediation of human capital
This paper investigates the impact of adopting quality management standards like ISO9001 on a firm’s performance and the mediator role of human capabilities within firms in this relationship. The article analyses this mediator effect in the context of an emerging economy that set a policy reform aimed at increase ISO adoption and with a large […]
On the Aggregate Implications of Removing Barriers to Formality
This article examines the aggregate implications of several policies aimed at removing barriers to formality. To this end, we build a dynamic equilibrium model in which heterogeneous agents choose to work for a wage or operate a technology in the formal or informal sector, based on the costs and benefits associated with these occupational choices. […]
Firms and informality a new data base for colombia
The article Firms & Informality identifies the main stylized facts of business informality in Colombia. To identify these facts, an innovative database (EEG) was built by attaching information from the Micro-business Survey (EMICRON), the structural surveys of manufacturing, trade, and services (EAM, EAC and EAS) and the questions asked to the employer by the household […]
Fiscal policy and informality in Colombia
This paper studies how informality reacts to fiscal policy instruments. We develop an analytical framework with a dual labor market with frictions, where the formal sector, in contrast to the informal sector, produces with technology using capital and pay taxes. We calibrate the model for the Colombian economy and quantify to what extent a decrease […]
Information problem in labour market and big data: colombian case
This working paper discusses the concepts and theoretical framework to analyse the labour market, based on the information found on online job portals. Based on a model with imperfect information (which seems more appropriate to describe Colombian labour market outcomes), the first section explains how skill mismatches can arise and their consequences for informality and […]
Making sense of well-being as a proxy for informality: differences in conceptualization and measurement
Although informality has been found to worsen individual and social economic outcomes, informal workers may not have a negative perception of their occupation and its effect on their overall well-being. If this is the case, policies and strategies aimed at formalization and inclusion should consider how these workers perceive their well-being and how these perceptions […]
Optimal monetary policy in a dual labor market: the role of informality
In this paper I analyze the optimal monetary policy in emerging countries whose labor markets are mainly characterized by the presence of a large informal sector. I develop a closed economy model with nominal price and wage rigidities, search and matching frictions and a dual labor market. A formal one characterized by matching frictions, and […]
Optimal monetary policy with informality: A first pass
Our paper aims to unveil how much the monetary policy shall deviate from the flexible-price allocation in an economy with a large informal sector. First of all, the presence of variable taxes in the formal sector generates an inflation bias under discretionary policy which increases with the size of the informal sector. Secondly, we find […]