Informalidad laboral, pobreza y regiones. Un análisis desde la coyuntura argentina

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of labor informality in poverty in the Argentine regions. The results indicate that informal employment reduces the income level between 53% and 71%, and employment in the informal sector decreases the wage level between 46% and 63%, depending on the region. Meanwhile, the formalization of informal employees implies poverty reductions of between 10% and 16%, and the eradication of employment in the informal sector leads to decreases in the incidence of poverty that are located between 7% and 14% depending on the region under consideration. The methodology adopted consisted, in a first step, in estimating the ceteris paribus effect of informality in poverty. Thus, it was possible to obtain the differential labor income caused by informality. Then, based on the estimated wage gaps, it was conducted a microsimulation of the incidence of poverty in a counterfactual scenario in which all informal workers (or workers in the informal sector) formalize. It was thus possible to quantify the effect of informality in poverty.