IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soueco/v20y2019i2p224-247.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dimensions of Informality in Bangladesh Labour Market and the Consequent Wage Penalty

Author

Listed:
  • Mustafizur Rahman
  • Debapriya Bhattacharya
  • Md Al-Hasan

Abstract

The article examines the various dimensions and underlying causes of informal employment in the Bangladesh labour market and the associated wage penalty. Based on labour force survey data for successive points, we trace the dynamics of employment in Bangladesh along the informal–formal divide over time. Given that wage differential remains a key feature concerning the two market segments, we have carried out mean and quantile decomposition exercises to estimate the wage penalty originating from informality. We find significant wage gaps between formal- and informal-paid employees, formal paid and informal day labour, and formal paid and informal self-employed. The wage gaps range between 65.0 per cent and 225.0 per cent. The gap arises from a combination of observed differences in human capital and job characteristics, and the wage premium accruing from formal employment. JEL: C21, J31

Suggested Citation

  • Mustafizur Rahman & Debapriya Bhattacharya & Md Al-Hasan, 2019. "Dimensions of Informality in Bangladesh Labour Market and the Consequent Wage Penalty," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(2), pages 224-247, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:20:y:2019:i:2:p:224-247
    DOI: 10.1177/1391561419850303
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1391561419850303
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1391561419850303?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. Victor Chernozhukov & Iván Fernández‐Val & Blaise Melly, 2013. "Inference on Counterfactual Distributions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(6), pages 2205-2268, November.
    2. Rafael La Porta & Andrei Shleifer, 2014. "Informality and Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 109-126, Summer.
    3. Gong, Xiaodong & van Soest, Arthur, 2002. "Wage differentials and mobility in the urban labour market: a panel data analysis for Mexico," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 513-529, September.
    4. Eliane El Badaoui & Eric Strobl & Frank Walsh, 2008. "Is There an Informal Employment Wage Penalty? Evidence from South Africa," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(3), pages 683-710, April.
    5. Nordman, Christophe J. & Rakotomanana, Faly & Roubaud, François, 2016. "Informal versus Formal: A Panel Data Analysis of Earnings Gaps in Madagascar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-17.
    6. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda, 2014. "The Informal Sector Wage Gap: New Evidence Using Quantile Estimations on Panel Data," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 117-153.
    7. Ross Levine & Yona Rubinstein, 2018. "Selection into Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment," NBER Working Papers 25350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Koenker, Roger, 2004. "Quantile regression for longitudinal data," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 74-89, October.
    9. repec:ilo:ilowps:483489 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    11. Ronald L. Oaxaca & Michael R. Ransom, 1999. "Identification in Detailed Wage Decompositions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 154-157, February.
    12. José Mata & José A. F. Machado, 2005. "Counterfactual decomposition of changes in wage distributions using quantile regression," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 445-465.
    13. Ying Chen & Zhun Xu, 2017. "Informal Employment and China’s Economic Development," Chinese Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(6), pages 425-433, November.
    14. Funkhouser, Edward, 1997. "Mobility and Labor Market Segmentation: The Urban Labor Market in El Salvador," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(1), pages 123-153, October.
    15. Ben Yahmed, Sarra, 2018. "Formal but Less Equal. Gender Wage Gaps in Formal and Informal Jobs in Urban Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 73-87.
    16. Maloney, William F., 2004. "Informality Revisited," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1159-1178, July.
    17. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    18. Ben Jann, 2008. "A Stata implementation of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition," ETH Zurich Sociology Working Papers 5, ETH Zurich, Chair of Sociology, revised 14 May 2008.
    19. Pratap, Sangeeta & Quintin, Erwan, 2006. "Are labor markets segmented in developing countries? A semiparametric approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(7), pages 1817-1841, October.
    20. Mandelman, Federico S. & Montes-Rojas, Gabriel V., 2009. "Is Self-employment and Micro-entrepreneurship a Desired Outcome?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 1914-1925, December.
    21. Ahmed, Salma & McGillivray, Mark, 2015. "Human Capital, Discrimination, and the Gender Wage Gap in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 506-524.
    22. Guillermo E. Perry & William F. Maloney & Omar S. Arias & Pablo Fajnzylber & Andrew D. Mason & Jaime Saavedra-Chanduvi, 2007. "Informality : Exit and Exclusion," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6730.
    23. Rahman, Rushidan I. & Islam, Rizwanul., 2013. "Female labour force participation in Bangladesh : trends, drivers and barriers," ILO Working Papers 994834893402676, International Labour Organization.
    24. Natalia Radchenko, 2017. "Informal Employment in Developing Economies: Multiple Heterogeneity," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 495-513, April.
    25. Oaxaca, Ronald L. & Ransom, Michael R., 1994. "On discrimination and the decomposition of wage differentials," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 5-21, March.
    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. Facundo Quiroga‐Martínez & Esteban Fernández‐Vázquez, 2021. "Education as a key to reduce spatial inequalities and informality in Argentinean regional labour markets," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 177-189, February.

    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. Mustafizur Rahman & Md. Al-Hasan, 2019. "Male–Female Wage Gap and Informal Employment in Bangladesh: A Quantile Regression Approach," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(1), pages 106-123, March.
    2. Mustafizur Rahman & Marzuka Md. Al-Hasan, 2019. "Women in Bangladesh Labour Market: Determinants of Participation, Gender Wage Gap and Returns to Schooling," CPD Working Paper 124, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
    3. Aysit Tansel & Halil Ibrahim Keskin & Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir, 2020. "Is there an informal employment wage penalty in Egypt? Evidence from quantile regression on panel data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(6), pages 2949-2979, June.
    4. Bargain, Olivier & Etienne, Audrey & Melly, Blaise, 2021. "Informal pay gaps in good and bad times: Evidence from Russia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 693-714.
    5. Rahman, Mustafizur & Al-Hasan, Md., 2018. "Male-Female wage gap and informal employment in Bangladesh: A quantile regression approach," MPRA Paper 90131, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Facundo Quiroga‐Martínez & Esteban Fernández‐Vázquez, 2021. "Education as a key to reduce spatial inequalities and informality in Argentinean regional labour markets," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 177-189, February.
    7. Aysit Tansel & Halil Ibrahim Keskin & Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir, 2015. "Is There An Infırmal Employment Wage Penalty in Egypt?," ERC Working Papers 1508, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised Sep 2015.
    8. Aysit Tansel & Halil Ibrahim Keskin & Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir, 2015. "Is There An Infırmal Employment Wage Penalty in Egypt?," ERC Working Papers 1508, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised Sep 2015.
    9. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda, 2014. "The Informal Sector Wage Gap: New Evidence Using Quantile Estimations on Panel Data," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 117-153.
    10. Jacek Liwiński, 2022. "Informal employment and wages in Poland," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(6), pages 1196-1220, January.
    11. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    12. Mustafizur Rahman & Md. Al-Hasan, 2022. "The Reverse Gender Wage Gap in Bangladesh: Demystifying the Counterintuitive," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(4), pages 929-950, December.
    13. Avinno Faruk, 2021. "Analysing the glass ceiling and sticky floor effects in Bangladesh: evidence, extent and elements," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(9), pages 1-23, September.
    14. Bargain, Olivier & Magejo, Prudence, 2010. "Is Informality Bad? Evidence from Brazil, Mexico and South Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 4711, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Christine ABLAZA & Mark WESTERN & Wojtek TOMASZEWSKI, 2021. "Good jobs and bad jobs for Indonesia's informal workers," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(1), pages 143-168, March.
    16. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Mathias G. Sinning, 2014. "Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 335-361, April.
    17. John P. Haisken-DeNew & Maren M. Michaelsen, 2011. "Migration Magnet: The Role of Work Experience in Rural-Urban Wage Diff erentials in Mexico," Ruhr Economic Papers 0263, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    18. Shahen, Mostafa E. & Kotani, Koji & Kakinaka, Makoto & Managi, Shunsuke, 2020. "Wage and labor mobility between public, formal private and informal private sectors in a developing country," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 101-113.
    19. Aysit Tansel & Elif Oznur Acar, 2016. "The Formal/Informal Employment Earnings Gap: Evidence from Turkey," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Inequality after the 20th Century: Papers from the Sixth ECINEQ Meeting, volume 24, pages 121-154, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Quantile decomposition; formal–informal wage gap;

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    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:soueco:v:20:y:2019:i:2:p:224-247. 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.ips.lk/ .

    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.