Informal work in a flexible labour market

Edoardo Di Porto, Leandro Elia, Cristina Tealdi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Informal employment is a pervasive and persistent feature of most developing and developed economies. Labour taxation and labour market regulations are deemed two major causes for operating in the informal sector. Using data from France, Italy, and Spain, we analyse gross job flows and gross worker flows in the formal and informal sectors in the presence of lenient employment protection legislation, and investigate the way traditional policy interventions may favour transitions from one sector to the other. We show that optimal outcomes in terms of reduction and formalisation of informal jobs across the three countries examined are achieved with the combination of lower payroll taxes for permanent contracts and higher inspection rate for firms operating in the informal sector. Coupling lower firing costs with more frequent labour inspections also reduces informality, but this comes at the cost of an increased ratio of temporary to total employment.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)143-164
Number of pages22
JournalOxford Economic Papers
Volume69
Issue number1
Early online date24 Mar 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2017

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