IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/mareco/v6y2012i2p277-310.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade, Employment and the Informal Sector: An Agent-based Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Bill Gibson

Abstract

This article discusses a multi-agent model of the informal sector. An analytical model is first developed to explore the possible range of relationships between formal and informal employment. Data from the agent-based model support protecting formal sector jobs with current account restrictions. It is seen that restrictions on outsourcing can have a positive effect on formal sector activity. Offshoring, that is, relocating to another country, is also considered. When restrictions on offshoring are studied, it is seen that formal sector employment growth is less robust. Unrestricted current and capital account activity produces a steady state with near zero informal activity, while restrictions preserve the informal sector indefinitely. JEL Classifications : O17, E17, D58

Suggested Citation

  • Bill Gibson, 2012. "Trade, Employment and the Informal Sector: An Agent-based Analysis," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 6(2), pages 277-310, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:mareco:v:6:y:2012:i:2:p:277-310
    DOI: 10.1177/097380101200600208
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097380101200600208
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/097380101200600208?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gibson, Bill & Kelley, Bruce, 1994. "A Classical Theory of the Informal Sector," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 62(1), pages 81-96, March.
    2. World Bank, 2009. "Geography in Motion: World Development Report 2009 (excerpt)," Transnational Corporations Review, Ottawa United Learning Academy, vol. 1(3), pages 40-46, September.
    3. Bill Gibson, 2007. "A Multi-Agent Systems Approach to Microeconomic Foundations of Macro," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2007-10, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    4. Joshua M. Epstein & Robert L. Axtell, 1996. "Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262550253, December.
    5. World Bank, 2009. "World Development Report 2009," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 5991.
    6. J. Doyne Farmer & Duncan Foley, 2009. "The economy needs agent-based modelling," Nature, Nature, vol. 460(7256), pages 685-686, August.
    7. Brock,W.A. & Durlauf,S.N., 2005. "Social interactions and macroeconomics," Working papers 5, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
    8. Bill Gibson, 2008. "Keynesian And Neoclassical Closures In An Agent-Based Context," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2008-03, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    9. Paul Beaudry & Fabrice Collard, 2002. "Why has the Employment-Productivity Tradeoff among Industrialized Countries been so strong?," NBER Working Papers 8754, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Athukorala, Prema-chandra & Narayanan, Suresh, 2018. "Economic corridors and regional development: The Malaysian experience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-14.
    2. Newburry, William & Gardberg, Naomi A. & Sanchez, Juan I., 2014. "Employer Attractiveness in Latin America: The Association Among Foreignness, Internationalization and Talent Recruitment," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 327-344.
    3. Roberto Ganau & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2022. "Does urban concentration matter for changes in country economic performance?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(6), pages 1275-1299, May.
    4. Brülhart, Marius & Desmet, Klaus & Klinke, Gian-Paolo, 2020. "The shrinking advantage of market potential," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    5. Giorgio Fagiolo & Mattia Guerini & Francesco Lamperti & Alessio Moneta & Andrea Roventini, 2017. "Validation of Agent-Based Models in Economics and Finance," LEM Papers Series 2017/23, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    6. Carol Newman & John Page, 2017. "Industrial clusters: The case for Special Economic Zones in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 015, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Clément Gorin & Shohei Nakamura & Mark Roberts & Benjamin Stewart, 2023. "An Anatomy of Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-04345529, HAL.
    8. Valentin Cojanu, 2012. "Beyond the ‘Nation State’: the Quest for New Territorial Paradigms in an Interconnected World Economy," Transition Studies Review, Springer;Central Eastern European University Network (CEEUN), vol. 18(3), pages 498-511, March.
    9. Christian Düben & Melanie Krause, 2021. "Population, light, and the size distribution of cities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 189-211, January.
    10. Jason M. Barr, 2019. "Domenico Delli Gatti, Giorgio Fagiolo, Mauro Gallegati, Matteo Richiardi and Alberto Russo (eds): Agent-Based Models in Economics: A Toolkit," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 477-480, June.
    11. Frick, Susanne A. & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2018. "Change in urban concentration and economic growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 156-170.
    12. Berdegué, Julio A. & Soloaga, Isidro, 2018. "Small and medium cities and development of Mexican rural areas," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 277-288.
    13. Jovanovic, Franck & Schinckus, Christophe, 2017. "Econophysics and Financial Economics: An Emerging Dialogue," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190205034.
    14. Delli Gatti,Domenico & Fagiolo,Giorgio & Gallegati,Mauro & Richiardi,Matteo & Russo,Alberto (ed.), 2018. "Agent-Based Models in Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108400046, January.
    15. Tian, Qing & Holland, John H. & Brown, Daniel G., 2016. "Social and economic impacts of subsidy policies on rural development in the Poyang Lake Region, China: Insights from an agent-based model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 12-27.
    16. Peter Lloyd, 2011. "Free Trade And Growth In The World Economy," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 56(03), pages 291-306.
    17. Hiroshi Kitamura & Noriaki Matsushima & Misato Sato, 2023. "Which is better for durable goods producers, exclusive or open supply chain?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 158-176, January.
    18. Yang, Zili, 2019. "Increasing returns to scale in energy-intensive sectors and its implications on climate change modeling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 208-216.
    19. Bill Gibson, 2008. "Keynesian And Neoclassical Closures In An Agent-Based Context," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2008-03, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    20. Nİhan Akyelken, 2015. "Infrastructure Development and Employment: The Case of Turkey," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(8), pages 1360-1373, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Informal Sector; Employment; Agent-based Models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • E17 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models

    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:sae:mareco:v:6:y:2012:i:2:p:277-310. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ncaer.org/ .

    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.