IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ira/wpaper/201514.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

“Determinants of Micro Firm Informality in Mexican States 2008-2012”

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Baez-Morales

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona)

Abstract

Informality has been given adverse associations as a result of its economic and social consequences in developed and developing countries. The latter group of countries has been the most affected in terms of low productivity, unprotected workers and the erosion of institutional credibility. Although the determinants of informality have been studied before, the research conducted on micro firms in a developing country has been less notable. In this paper, Mexico is taken as case study due to its high level of micro firm informality and the heterogeneity among Mexican states. The aim of this paper is to analyse the determinants of micro firm informality by state, using different public sources, such as the Encuesta Nacional de Micronegocios (ENAMIN, or the National Micro Firm Survey), the Instituto Nacional de Estadisica (INEGI, or the National Institute for Statistics) and the Secretaría de Economía (SE, or the Secretariat for Economics). Econometric panel data models were estimated for a sample of 32 states over the 2008-2012 period. Furthermore, this paper uses different definitions of informality to check the robustness of the results. The empirical evidence obtained allows us to conclude that, although economic factors are the main causes of informality, variables such as corruption and education have an important role to play.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Baez-Morales, 2015. "“Determinants of Micro Firm Informality in Mexican States 2008-2012”," IREA Working Papers 201514, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised May 2015.
    • Handle: RePEc:ira:wpaper:201514
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ub.edu/irea/working_papers/2015/201514.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pagés, Carmen & Stampini, Marco, 2009. "No education, no good jobs? Evidence on the relationship between education and labor market segmentation," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 387-401, September.
    2. Andreas Buehn & Friedrich Schneider, 2012. "Shadow economies around the world: novel insights, accepted knowledge, and new estimates," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(1), pages 139-171, February.
    3. Michael J. Pisani & José A. Pagán, 2004. "Sectoral Selection and Informality: a Nicaraguan Case Study," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(4), pages 541-556, November.
    4. Gemechu Ayana Aga & Barry Reilly, 2011. "Access to credit and informality among micro and small enterprises in Ethiopia," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 313-329.
    5. G. M.P. Swann, 2009. "The Economics of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13211.
    6. 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.
    7. Masatlioglu Yusufcan & Rigolini Jamele, 2008. "Informality Traps," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, December.
    8. Sean Dougherty & Octavio Escobar, 2013. "The Determinants of Informality in Mexico's States," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1043, OECD Publishing.
    9. Áureo de Paula & Jose A. Scheinkman, 2010. "Value-Added Taxes, Chain Effects, and Informality," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 195-221, October.
    10. Baltagi, Badi H & Griffin, James M, 1984. "Short and Long Run Effects in Pooled Models," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 25(3), pages 631-645, October.
    11. Gatti, Roberta & Honorati, Maddalena, 2007. "Informality among Formal Firms: Firm-level, Cross-country Evidence on Tax Compliance and Access to Credit," CEPR Discussion Papers 6597, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Benno Torgler, 2005. "Tax morale in Latin America," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 133-157, January.
    13. 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.
    14. Aureo de Paula & Jose A. Scheinkman, 2009. "“Value Added Taxes, Chain Effects and Informality†, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 09-041, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 09 Nov 2009.
    15. Nicola Brandt, 2011. "Informality in Mexico," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 896, OECD Publishing.
    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. Ceyhun Elgin & Muhammed Burak Sezgin, 2017. "Sectoral Estimates of Informality: A New Method and Application for the Turkish Economy," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 55(4), pages 261-289, December.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Flórez, Luz A., 2017. "Informal sector under saving: A positive analysis of labour market policies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 13-26.
    5. Hartmut Lehmann, 2015. "Informal Employment in Transition Countries: Empirical Evidence and Research Challenges," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 57(1), pages 1-30, March.
    6. 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.
    7. 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).
    8. 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.
    9. Aterido, Reyes & Hallward-Driemeier, Mary & Pages, Carmen, 2011. "Does expanding health insurance beyond formal-sector workers encourage informality ? measuring the impact of Mexico's Seguro Popular," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5785, The World Bank.
    10. 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.
    11. Madrigal, Lucia & Pagés, Carmen & Suaya, Agustina, 2016. "The Value of Social Security: Are Formal Jobs Better?," IZA Discussion Papers 9866, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. repec:col:000089:013537 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Lehmann, Hartmut & Pignatti, Norberto, 2018. "Informal employment relationships and the labor market: Is there segmentation in Ukraine?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 838-857.
    14. Catalina Granda & Franz Hamann, 2015. "Informality, Saving and Wealth Inequality," Borradores de Economia 873, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    15. Marisa Bucheli & Rodrigo Ceni, 2010. "Informality Sectoral Selection and Earnings in Uruguay," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 25(2), pages 281-307.
    16. 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.
    17. Posada, Carlos Esteban & Mejía, Daniel, 2012. "Informalidad : teoría e implicaciones de política," Chapters, in: Arango-Thomas, Luis Eduardo & Hamann-Salcedo, Franz Alonso (ed.), El mercado de trabajo en Colombia : hechos, tendencias e instituciones, chapter 9, pages 363-397, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    18. 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.
    19. Colombo, Emilio & Furceri, Davide & Pizzuto, Pietro & Tirelli, Patrizio, 2024. "Public expenditure multipliers and informality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    20. Giombini, Germana & Teobaldelli, Désirée & Schneider, Friedrich, 2018. "Interaction effect of tax evasion and legal system inefficiency on firms' financial constraints," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-20.
    21. Luca Flabbi & Mauricio Tejada, 2022. "Working and Saving Informally: The Link between Labor Market Informality and Financial Exclusion," CHILD Working Papers Series 105 JEL Classification: J, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    microenterprises; informal economy; entrepreneurship; developing countries; institutions. JEL classification: E26; O17; L26;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    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:ira:wpaper:201514. 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: Alicia García (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feubaes.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.