The Job Ladder

Transforming Informal Work and Livelihoods in Developing Countries
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-0-19-286733-9
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 953 g

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Based on studies of a range of countries in the Global South, this book examines heterogeneity within informal work by applying a common conceptual framework and empirical methodology. The country studies use panel data to study the dynamics of worker transitions between formal and heterogeneous informal work and present a comparative perspective across developing countries in Asia, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and North Africa and the Middle East. Each study provides a nuanced view of informality, dividing workers into six work statuses: formal wage-employees, upper-tier informal wage-employees, lower-tier informal wage employees, formal self-employed, and upper-tier informal self-employed. Based on this common conceptual framework, the country studies examine the distribution of workers across each of these work statuses, and document transition patterns across different formality and work statuses. The panel data analysed in each country study provide a basis for making statements about labour market transitions that are not warranted when using comparable cross-sections. The studies also examine the individual- and household-level characteristics associated with workers in each work status. Using these characteristics, each study constructs a 'job ladder' that ranks each work status, and then examines the characteristics of workers that are associated with transitions up (and down) the job ladder.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fields, Gary S

Gindling, T H

Sen, Kunal

Danquah, Michael

Schotte, Simone

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Entwicklungsökonomie & Emerging Markets
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Entwicklungspolitik, Nord-Süd Beziehungen
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Wirtschaftswachstum
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Beschäftigung, Arbeitslosigkeit

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- List of figures

- List of tables

- List of abbreviations

- Notes on contributors

- I. Introduction

- 1: Gary S. Fields, Tim Gindling, Kunal Sen, Michael Danquah, and Simone Schotte: The job ladder

- 2: Gary S. Fields: Informality and work status

- II. Asia

- 3: Carl Lin, Linxiang Ye, and Wei Zhang: Transforming informal work and livelihoods in China

- 4: Rajesh Raj Natarajan, Simone Schotte, and Kunal Sen: Moving up or down the job ladder in India: Examining informality-formality transitions

- 5: Mayang Rizky, Daniel Suryadarma, and Asep Suryahadi: Progress and stagnation in the livelihood of informal workers in an emerging economy

- III. Latin America

- 6: Enrique Alaniz, T.H. Gindling, Catherine Mata, and Diego Rojas: Transforming informal work and livelihoods in Costa Rica and Nicaragua

- 7: Roxana Maurizio and Ana Paula Monsalvo: Informality, labour transitions, and the livelihoods of workers in Latin America

- 8: Enrique Alaniz, Alma Espino, and T.H. Gindling: Self-employment and labour market dynamics of men and women in El Salvador and Nicaragua

- 9: Robert Duval-Hernández: Informal work in urban Mexico: characteristics, dynamics, and workers' preferences

- IV. Sub-Saharan Africa

- 10: Sènakpon Fidèle A. Dedehouanou, and Didier Y. Alia: Dynamics of off-farm self-employment in the West African Sahel

- 11: Abiodun O. Folawewo and Olusegun A. Orija: Informal-formal workers' transition in Nigeria: A livelihood analysis

- 12: Michael Danquah, Simone Schotte, and Kunal Sen: Informal-formal transitions in work status in sub-Saharan Africa: A comparative perspective

- V. North Africa and the Middle East

- 13: Shireen AlAzzawi and Vladimir Hlasny: Evolution of vulnerable employment in Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia

- VI. Lessons Learnt

- 14: Gary S. Fields, T.H. Gindling, Kunal Sen, Michael Danquah, and Simone Schotte: How to transform informal work and livelihoods? Lessons learnt and policy options

- Appendix A: Work status definition and operationalization

- Appendix B: Job ladder

- Appendix C: Work status dynamics

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Gary S. Fields is the John P. Windmuller Professor of International and Comparative Labor and Professor of Economics at Cornell University, Program Coordinator of the IZA Institute for Labor Economics Program on Labor and Development, and a UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow. He has been an Ivy League teacher and professor for fifty years, first at Yale University and then at Cornell University. He teaches and conducts research on labor economics and development economics. He is the 2014 winner of the IZA Prize in Labor Economics, the top world-wide award in the field, and a three-time winner of the General Mills Foundation Award for Exemplary Graduate Teaching.

Tim Gindling is Professor of Economics, Affiliate Professor of Public Policy, and the 2020-2021 Lipitz Professor of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). His research focuses on the study of factors influencing the distribution of wages, income, and work in developing economies. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Costa Rica and the National Autonomous University of Costa Rica, and is the subject editor for economic development of the IZA World of Labor. His publications include the book Toward More Efficient and Effective Public Social Spending in Central America (with Pablo Acosta, Rita Almeida and Christine Lao Peña) and over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.

Kunal Sen is Director of UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, and Professor of Development Economics at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. He has three decades of experienced in applied development economics research. He has authored eight books and is the editor of five volumes on the economics and political economy of development. His main area of research is the political economy of growth and development, international finance, the dynamics of poverty, social exclusion, female labour force participation, and the informal sector in developing economies. He was awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize in 2006 and the Dudley Seers Prize in 2003 for his publications.

Michael Danquah is a Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. He is a development economist currently serving as focal point for the projects 'Transforming informal work and livelihoods' and 'African Cities' projects. He previously worked in the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, and his research interests are in economic development in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily focussing on issues such as informality and productivity growth, among others. His work has been published in journals such as Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, and Small Business Economics.

Simone Schotte is a Visiting Researcher at UNU-WIDER. She is a development economist focusing on inequality, social stratification, and labour markets research. She holds a PhD from the University of Göttingen, and prior to her time at UNU-WIDER, she worked at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and was a consultant to the World Bank. Her research has been published in journals such as World Development, Journal of Economic Inequality, Journal of Development Studies, Kyklos, and International Migration Review, among others.