IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/col/000151/017966.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Assistance and Informality: Examining the Link in Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Fabiola Saavedra-Caballero
  • Mónica Ospina Londoño

Abstract

This paper presents evidence on the labor market effects of social assistance programs in the short and medium run. We evaluate the impact of a Conditional Cash Transfer —cct— program “Familias en Accion” on informality at the individual level in Colombia. We include three different perspectives on informality that capture different aspects of the problem. We argue that, even though it is not a desirable result, being a beneficiary of social programs may create perverse incentives towards informality. We used survey data from the “Familias en Accion” program to identify whether the program had any effect on workers’ propensity to participate in the informal labor market in Colombia, both one and four years after the program’s implementation. To overcome the problem of unobserved time-invariant differences, our empirical strategy includes a combination of matching algorithms and difference-in-differences methodology. Our results show that worker’s informality condition may be affected by receiving cct income.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabiola Saavedra-Caballero & Mónica Ospina Londoño, 2018. "Social Assistance and Informality: Examining the Link in Colombia," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, vol. 21(1), pages 81-120, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:col:000151:017966
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://revistas.urosario.edu.co/index.php/economia/article/view/6801
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baez, Javier E. & Camacho, Adriana, 2011. "Assessing the Long-term Effects of Conditional Cash Transfers on Human Capital: Evidence from Colombia," IZA Discussion Papers 5751, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Garcia Penalosa, Cecilia & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2005. "Second-best optimal taxation of capital and labor in a developing economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 1045-1074, June.
    3. Hugo LóPEz Castaño & Francisco Lasso Valderrama, 2012. "El mercado laboral y el problema pensional colombiano," Borradores de Economia 736, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    4. Adriana Camacho & Emily Conover & Alejandro Hoyos, 2014. "Effects of Colombia's Social Protection System on Workers' Choice between Formal and Informal Employment," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(3), pages 446-466.
    5. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 2002. "Propensity Score-Matching Methods For Nonexperimental Causal Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 151-161, February.
    6. Gasparini Leonardo & Leonardo Tornaroli, 2009. "Labor Informality in Latin America and the Caribbean: Patterns and Trends from Household Survey Microdata," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, September.
    7. Bertha Briceño & Laura Cuesta & Orazio Attanasio, 2011. "Behind the scenes: experience managing and conducting large impact evaluations in Colombia," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(4), pages 470-501, December.
    8. Orazio Attanasio & Emla Fitzsimons & Ana Gómez & Martha Isabel Gutierrez & Costas Meghir & Alice Mesnard, 2006. "Child education and work choices in the presence of a conditional cash transfer programme in rural Colombia," IFS Working Papers W06/13, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Guataquí R., Juan Carlos & García S., Andrés Felipe & Rodríguez A., Mauricio, 2010. "El Perfil de la Informalidad Laboral en Colombia," Perfil de Coyuntura Económica, Universidad de Antioquia, CIE, November.
    10. Oskar Nupia, 2011. "Anti-Poverty Programs and Presidential Election Outcomes: Familias en Acción in Colombia," Documentos CEDE 8743, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    11. Bryson, Alex & Dorsett, Richard & Purdon, Susan, 2002. "The use of propensity score matching in the evaluation of active labour market policies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 4993, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Sebastian Galiani & Federico Weinschelbaum, 2012. "Modeling Informality Formally: Households And Firms," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(3), pages 821-838, July.
    13. Enste, Dominik & Schneider, Friedrich, 1998. "Increasing Shadow Economies all over the World - Fiction or Reality?," IZA Discussion Papers 26, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xavier Jara & David Rodríguez, 2019. "Financial disincentives to formal work: Evidence from Ecuador and Colombia," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-14, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerardo Esquivel Hernández & Juan Luis Ordaz-Díaz, 2008. "¿Es la política social una causa de la informalidad en México?," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(1), pages 1-32, May.
    2. Amarendra Sharma, 2019. "Indira Awas Yojana and Housing Adequacy: An Evaluation using Propensity Score Matching," ASARC Working Papers 2019-05, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    3. Calderón, Valentina & Marinescu, Ioana, 2011. "The Impact of Colombia's Pension and Health Insurance Systems on Informality," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 3831, Inter-American Development Bank.
    4. Richard Disney & Eleonora Fischera & Trudy Owens, 2010. "Has the Introduction of Microfinance Crowded-out Informal Loans in Malawi?," Discussion Papers 10/08, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    5. von Greiff, Jenny, 2009. "Displacement and self-employment entry," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 556-565, October.
    6. Pak, Tae-Young, 2020. "Social protection for happiness? The impact of social pension reform on subjective well-being of the Korean elderly," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 349-366.
    7. Sandra García & Jennifer Hill, 2009. "The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on Children´s School Achievement: Evidence from Colombia," Documentos CEDE 5403, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    8. Isaac Marcelin & Daniel Brink & David Oluwatosin Fadiran & Hammed Adedeji Amusa, 2019. "Subsidized labour and firms: Investment, profitability, and leverage," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-50, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Sánchez-Braza, Antonio & Pablo-Romero, María del P., 2014. "Evaluation of property tax bonus to promote solar thermal systems in Andalusia (Spain)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 832-843.
    10. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, February.
    11. Gao, Qin & Zhai, Fuhua & Garfinkel, Irwin, 2010. "How Does Public Assistance Affect Family Expenditures? The Case of Urban China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 989-1000, July.
    12. Attanasio, Orazio & Polania-Reyes, Sandra & Pellerano, Luca, 2015. "Building social capital: Conditional cash transfers and cooperation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 22-39.
    13. Melanie Khamis, 2012. "A Note On Informality In The Labour Market," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(7), pages 894-908, October.
    14. Bergolo, M. & Cruces, G., 2021. "The anatomy of behavioral responses to social assistance when informal employment is high," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    15. Robert T. Greenbaum & George E. Tita, 2004. "The Impact of Violence Surges on Neighbourhood Business Activity," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(13), pages 2495-2514, December.
    16. Liane Faltermeier & Awudu Abdulai, 2009. "The impact of water conservation and intensification technologies: empirical evidence for rice farmers in Ghana," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(3), pages 365-379, May.
    17. Indunil De Silva, 2012. "Evaluating the Impact of Microfinance on Savings and Income in Sri Lanka:Quasi-experimental Approach Using Propensity Score Matching," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 6(1), pages 47-74, February.
    18. Miguel Angel Malo & Fernando Muñoz-Bullón, 2006. "Employment promotion measures and the quality of the job match for persons with disabilities," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 179(4), pages 79-111, September.
    19. Garganta, Santiago & Gasparini, Leonardo, 2015. "The impact of a social program on labor informality: The case of AUH in Argentina," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 99-110.
    20. Matthew Roskruge & Arthur Grimes & Philip McCann & Jacques Poot, 2013. "Homeownership, Social Capital and Satisfaction with Local Government," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(12), pages 2517-2534, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    informality; conditional cash transfers; evaluation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:col:000151:017966. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Facultad de Economía (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferosco.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.