IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sbp/wpaper/75.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Informal Labour Markets in Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Muhammad Ali Choudhary

    (State Bank of Pakistan)

  • Saima Naeem

    (State Bank of Pakistan)

  • Gylfi Zoega

    (University of London,)

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a survey of informal-sector firms in Pakistan. Firms belong to the informal sector mainly because of scarce financial resources. There are significant differences in the level of wages and the flexibility of wages with the informal sector having both lower wages and greater flexibility than the formal sector. While minimum wages are less binding in the informal sector, a sort of indexation of wages to inflation is more common. In spite of these differences the reasons for not cutting wages in a recession are similar between the two sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Muhammad Ali Choudhary & Saima Naeem & Gylfi Zoega, 2016. "Informal Labour Markets in Pakistan," SBP Working Paper Series 75, State Bank of Pakistan, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:sbp:wpaper:75
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sbp.org.pk/repec/sbp/wpaper/wp75.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2016
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hall, Simon & Walsh, Mark & Yates, Anthony, 2000. "Are UK Companies' Prices Sticky?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 52(3), pages 425-446, July.
    2. Arminio Fraga & Ilan Goldfajn & André Minella, 2004. "Inflation Targeting in Emerging Market Economies," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2003, Volume 18, pages 365-416, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. John Rand & Nina Torm, 2012. "The informal sector wage gap among Vietnamese micro-firms," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 560-577.
    4. Esfahani, Hadi S & Salehi-Isfahani, Djavad, 1989. "Effort Observability and Worker Productivity: Towards an Explanation of Economic Dualism," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 818-836, September.
    5. Taylor, John B, 1980. "Aggregate Dynamics and Staggered Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(1), pages 1-23, February.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Lawless, Martina & Keeney, Mary, 2010. "Wage setting and wage flexibility in Ireland - Results from a firm-level survey," Working Paper Series 1181, European Central Bank.
    9. A. R. Kemal & Zafar Mahmood, 1998. "The Urban Informal Sector of Pakistan. Some Stylized Facts," PIDE-Working Papers 1998:161, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    10. 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.
    11. Alcaraz Carlo, 2009. "Informal and Formal Labour Flexibility in Mexico," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, September.
    12. Keeney, Mary & Lawless, Martina & Murphy, Alan, 2009. "Wage Setting and Wage Flexibility in Ireland," Quarterly Bulletin Articles, Central Bank of Ireland, pages 62-74, October.
    13. Gray, Jo Anna, 1976. "Wage indexation: A macroeconomic approach," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 221-235, April.
    14. Olivei, Giovanni & Tenreyro, Silvana, 2010. "Wage-setting patterns and monetary policy: International evidence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 785-802, October.
    15. Fernando Martins & M. Druant, 2009. "How are Firms’ Wages and Prices Linked: Survey Evidence in Europe," Working Papers w200918, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    16. Esteban Jadresic, 1996. "Wage Indexation and the Cost of Disinflation," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 43(4), pages 796-825, December.
    17. A.R. Kemal & Zafar Mahmood, 1998. "Characteristics of the Workers in the Urban Informal Sector of Pakistan," PIDE Research Report 1998:160, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    18. Choudhary, M. Ali & Naeem, Saima & Faheem, Abdul & Hanif, Nadim & Pasha, Farooq, 2011. "Formal sector price discoveries: preliminary results from a developing country," MPRA Paper 32368, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982. "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 649-670, May.
    20. 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.
    21. Fischer, Stanley, 1977. "Wage indexation and macroeconomics stability," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 107-147, January.
    22. Fields,Gary S., 2005. "A guide to multisector labor market models," Social Protection and Labor Policy and Technical Notes 32547, The World Bank.
    23. George A. Akerlof & William R. Dickens & George L. Perry, 1996. "The Macroeconomics of Low Inflation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 27(1), pages 1-76.
    24. Sonia Di Giannatale & Gibrán Ramírez-Abarca & Ricardo Smith, 2013. "Estimating the Effects of Formality on Mexican Informal Microfirms. A Joint Multivariate Approach," Economía Mexicana NUEVA ÉPOCA, CIDE, División de Economía, vol. 0(4, Cierre), pages 441-463.
    25. Hernando Vargas & Andrés González & Eliana González & José Vicente Romero & José Luis Eduardo Rojas, 2010. "Assessing inflationary pressures in Colombia," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Monetary policy and the measurement of inflation: prices, wages and expectations, volume 49, pages 129-171, Bank for International Settlements.
    26. Silke Woltermann, 2003. "Job-Search Methods and Labor Market Transitions in a Segmented Economy," Labor and Demography 0310001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    27. Mr. Esteban Jadresic, 1996. "Wage Indexation and the Cost of Disinflation," IMF Working Papers 1996/048, International Monetary Fund.
    28. Fernando Lefort & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel, 2002. "Indexation, Inflation and Monetary Policy: An Overview," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Fernando Lefort & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Serie (ed.),Indexation, Inflation and MOnetary Policy, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 1, pages 001-018, Central Bank of Chile.
    29. Evans, David S & Leighton, Linda S, 1989. "Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 519-535, June.
    30. M. Ali Choudhary & Saima Naeem & Abdul Faheem & Nadim Haneef & Farooq Pasha, 2011. "Formal Sector Price Discoveries: Results from a Developing Country," School of Economics Discussion Papers 1011, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    31. Fields,Gary S., 2005. "A guide to multisector labor market models," Policy Research Working Paper Series 32547, The World Bank.
    32. Ahmed, Waqas & Choudhary, M. Ali & Khan, Sajawal & Naeem, Saima & Zoega, Gylfi, 2014. "Determinants of wage stickiness in a developing economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 296-304.
    33. 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.
    34. Druant, Martine & Fabiani, Silvia & Kezdi, Gabor & Lamo, Ana & Martins, Fernando & Sabbatini, Roberto, 2012. "Firms' price and wage adjustment in Europe: Survey evidence on nominal stickiness," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 772-782.
    35. Abid Aman Burki, 1989. "Urban Informal Sector in Pakistan: Some Selected Issues," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 28(4), pages 911-924.
    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. M. Ali Choudhary & Saima Mahmood & Sajawal Khan & Waqas Ahmed & Gylfi Zoega, 2013. "Sticky Wages in a Developing Country: Lessons from Structured Interviews in Pakistan," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0213, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    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. 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.
    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 Publishing Ltd.
    7. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda, 2010. "Is Informality Bad? - Evidence from Brazil, Mexico and South Africa," Working Papers 201003, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    8. Ahmed, Waqas & Choudhary, M. Ali & Khan, Sajawal & Naeem, Saima & Zoega, Gylfi, 2014. "Determinants of wage stickiness in a developing economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 296-304.
    9. Fernando Martins, 2015. "What Survey Data Reveal about Price and Wage Rigidity in Portugal," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(3), pages 291-309, September.
    10. repec:zbw:rwirep:0263 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Montornès, Jérémi & Sauner-Leroy, Jacques-Bernard, 2009. "Wage-setting behavior in France: additional evidence from an ad-hoc survey," Working Paper Series 1102, European Central Bank.
    12. 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.
    13. Maren Michaelsen & John Haisken-DeNew, 2015. "Migration magnet: the role of work experience in rural–urban wage differentials," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-25, December.
    14. Esteban Jadresic, 1998. "The Macroeconomic Consequences of Wage Indexation Revisited," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 35, Central Bank of Chile.
    15. 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.
    16. Petr Huber & Ulugbek Rahimov, 2014. "Formal and Informal Sector Wage Differences in Transition Economies: Evidence from Tajikistan," MENDELU Working Papers in Business and Economics 2014-48, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    17. Michaelsen, Maren M. & Haisken-DeNew, John P., 2011. "Migration Magnet: The Role of Work Experience in Rural-Urban Wage Differentials in Mexico," Ruhr Economic Papers 263, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    18. 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.
    19. Hanan Nazier & Racha Ramadan, 2015. "Informality and Poverty: A Causality Dilemma with Application to Egypt," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 5(4), pages 1-4.
    20. 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.
    21. Jeremi Montornes & Jacques-Bernard Sauner-Leroy, 2015. "Wage-setting Behavior in France: Additional Evidence from an Ad-hoc Survey," Journal of Banking and Financial Economics, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 1(3), pages 5-23, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Informal sector; wage setting; wage rigidity.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J46 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Informal Labor Market

    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:sbp:wpaper:75. 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: Faisal Saleem (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sbpgvpk.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.