IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/1001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Informalization Dynamics and Gains: Why Want a Job Contract?

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed Elsayed
  • Jackline Wahba

    (University of Southampton, UK)

Abstract

This paper examines the dynamics of informality and the extent to which informal workers (without job contracts) transit to formal employment (with job contracts) and whether this transition has changed over time and in particular during the recent political and economic turmoil in Egypt. It also investigates the potential gains/losses associated with holding a job contract. Using panel data from Egypt, we find that after the Arab Spring Revolution, the probability to work without a contract increased, and conditional on being informally employed, the probability to switch from private informal to private formal employment decreased. We also find that working without contract is associated with pay penalty. This pay penalty has increased significantly over time. Furthermore, using Difference in difference techniques, the results show that moving from employment without contract to one with contract is associated with a substantial wage premium.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed Elsayed & Jackline Wahba, 2016. "Informalization Dynamics and Gains: Why Want a Job Contract?," Working Papers 1001, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1001.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://bit.ly/1rHJdE5
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gong, Xiaodong & Van Soest, Arthur & Villagomez, Elizabeth, 2004. "Mobility in the Urban Labor Market: A Panel Data Analysis for Mexico," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 1-36, October.
    2. Tansel, Aysit & Ozdemir, Zeynel / A., 2014. "Determinants of Transitions across Formal/Informal sectors in Egypt," MPRA Paper 61183, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Bosch, Mariano & Maloney, William F., 2010. "Comparative analysis of labor market dynamics using Markov processes: An application to informality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 621-631, August.
    4. Aysit Tansel & Halil Ibrahim Keskin & Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir, 2015. "Is There an Informal Employment Wage Penalty in Egypt?," Working Papers 976, Economic Research Forum, revised Dec 2015.
    5. 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.
    6. Tansel, Aysit & Kan, Elif Oznur, 2011. "Labor mobility across the formal/informal divide in Turkey: evidence from individual level data," MPRA Paper 35672, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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 & Elif Öznur Acar, 2017. "Labor mobility across the formal/informal divide in Turkey: Evidence from individual-level data," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 617-635, September.
    9. Ragui Assaad & Caroline Krafft, 2013. "The Structure and Evolution of Employment in Egypt: 1998-2012," Working Papers 805, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2013.
    10. Maloney, William F, 1999. "Does Informality Imply Segmentation in Urban Labor Markets? Evidence from Sectoral Transitions in Mexico," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 275-302, May.
    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. Jingyuan Deng & Nelly Elmallakh & Luca Flabbi & Roberta Gatti, 2024. "Labor market transitions in Egypt post-Arab Spring," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 117-141, January.

    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. Aysit Tansel & Halil Ibrahim Keskin & Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir, 2015. "Is There an Informal Employment Wage Penalty in Egypt?," Working Papers 976, Economic Research Forum, revised Dec 2015.
    2. Fabián Slonimczyk & Vladimir Gimpelson, 2015. "Informality and mobility," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 23(2), pages 299-341, April.
    3. Tansel, Aysit & Ozdemir, Zeynel / A., 2014. "Determinants of Transitions across Formal/Informal sectors in Egypt," MPRA Paper 61183, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Slonimczyk, Fabian & Gimpelson, Vladimir, 2013. "Informality and Mobility: Evidence from Russian Panel Data," IZA Discussion Papers 7703, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Ahmed Elsayed & Jackline Wahba, 2019. "Political change and informality : Evidence from the Arab Spring," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 27(1), pages 31-66, January.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim & Ozdemir, Zeynel Abidin, 2008. "Public versus Private Sector Wage Gap in Egypt: Evidence from Quantile Regression on Panel Data," MPRA Paper 89540, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Joonmo Cho & Jaeseong Lee, 2015. "Persistence of the Gender Gap and Low Employment of Female Workers in a Stratified Labor Market: Evidence from South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-27, September.
    10. 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.
    11. Tansel, Aysit & Keskin, Halil Ibrahim & Ozdemir, Zeynel Abidin, 2008. "Public versus Private Sector Wage Gap in Egypt: Evidence from Quantile Regression on Panel Data," MPRA Paper 89540, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda, 2010. "Is Informality Bad? - Evidence from Brazil, Mexico and South Africa," Working Papers 201003, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    13. Mathilde Bouvier & François Roubaud & Mireille Razafindrakoto & Roberta Teixeira, 2022. "Labour market transitions in the time of Covid-19 in Brazil:a panel data analysis," Working Papers DT/2022/02, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    14. 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.
    15. Falco, Paolo & Maloney, William F. & Rijkers, Bob & Sarrias, Mauricio, 2015. "Heterogeneity in subjective wellbeing: An application to occupational allocation in Africa," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 137-153.
    16. Hatem Jemmali & Fatma El-Hamidi, 2018. "Does it Still Pay to Go to College in Egypt? Decomposition Analysis of Wage Differentials For College and Non-College Graduates," Working Papers 1224, Economic Research Forum, revised 18 Sep 2018.
    17. Enrique Alaniz & Alma Espino & T.H. Gindling, 2019. "Self-employment and labour market dynamics of men and women in El Salvador and Nicaragua," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-97, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Tansel, Aysit & Kan, Elif Oznur, 2011. "Labor mobility across the formal/informal divide in Turkey: evidence from individual level data," MPRA Paper 35672, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda, 2009. "The Informal Sector Wage Gap: New Evidence Using Quantile Regressions on Panel Data," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 09-06, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:erg:wpaper:1001. 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: Sherine Ghoneim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.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.