informal employment

In Mexico, reducing tariffs on imported inputs helped workers move from informal to formal employment, particularly benefiting skilled workers who are most complementary to foreign technology.

Evidence from Mexico suggests that carefully designed outsourcing regulation can significantly improve wages without reducing employment in developing countries.

In Brazil, labour inspections reduce informality but harm workers and firms when rigid labour regulations leave them with little room to adjust.

Developing countries have large, complex informal sectors. Informality provides workers and firms with flexibility at the cost of security, often leaving individuals worse off in the long-term. What have we learned from research on informality, and how can we use it to inform policy?

In Brazil, shifts into non-tradables, non-employment and informal employment are important margins of labour adjustment to import competition