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22 UNU-WIDER articles, publications, projects, experts...
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Working Paper
Motherhood and flexible jobs: Evidence from Latin American countriesWe study the causal effect of motherhood on labour market outcomes in Latin America by adopting an event study approach around the birth of the first child based on panel data from national household surveys for Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay...
child penalty event study female labour supplyWorking Paper
The labour market impact of COVID-19 lockdowns: Evidence from GhanaIn this paper, we provide causal evidence of the impact of stringent lockdown policies on labour market outcomes at both the extensive and intensive margins, using Ghana as a case study...
COVID-19 Lockdown EmploymentWorking Paper
Welfare and the depth of informality: Evidence from five African countriesThis study explores the relationship between household poverty and depth of informality by proposing a new measure of informality at the household level...
Informality Measurement PovertyWorking Paper
Job quality and labour market transitions: Evidence from Mexican informal and formal workersIn this paper we analyse informal work in Mexico, which accounts for the majority of employment in the country and has grown over time...
Informal work job quality Labour market dynamicsWorking Paper
Informality, labour transitions, and the livelihoods of workers in Latin AmericaThis paper studies the incidence and heterogeneity of labour informality in six Latin American countries—Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru...
Informality Occupational turnover EducationWorking Paper
Informality and firm performance in MyanmarUsing a novel panel survey of enterprises in Myanmar, we compare the performance of manufacturing firms by three different informality definitions. The first is binary, based on whether firms pay taxes...
Firms Informality MyanmarWorking Paper
Vulnerable employment of Egyptian, Jordanian, and Tunisian youth: Trends and determinantsYouths in the Middle East and North Africa face the highest unemployment rates in the world. Those who are employed are pushed to accept informal sector jobs that are insecure, unsafe, and lack non-wage benefits...
Vulnerable employment Informality Youth unemploymentWorking Paper
By choice or by force?: Uncovering the nature of informal employment in urban MexicoUsing a special module of the 2015 Mexican Labour Force Survey with information on workers’ preferences for jobs with social security coverage, I estimate that 80 per cent of informal workers in large urban areas would prefer to work in a job t...
Informal work Labour market Labour market segmentationProject workshop
Transforming informal work and livelihoods — authors' workshop
Working Paper
Dynamics of off-farm self-employment in West African SahelThis study uses detailed household-level data to analyse off-farm self-employment dynamics in Mali and Niger...
Fragile states Informality Self-employmentWorking Paper
Ethnic diversity and informal work in GhanaWe present the first study that examines the effects of ethnic diversity on informal work...
Ethnic diversity Informal work InformalityBlog
Decent work and COVID-19 – it’s time for a just deal for all workers
Seven months into the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19, we already see significant effects on employment and earnings worldwide...
Decent Work Informality COVID-19Blog
COVID-19 intensifies global need to support informal workers in their struggle: Three guiding principles for a better deal
The world is facing an existential crisis that poses challenging questions: whether to put people and nature before owners of capital and technology; whether to protect the rights of the disadvantaged or the interests of the elite...
Decent Work Informality Women's workWorking Paper
Transforming informal work and livelihoods in Costa Rica and NicaraguaWe divide workers into six work statuses: formal self-employed, upper-tier informal self-employed, lower-tier informal self-employed, formal wage-employed, upper-tier informal wage-employed, and lower-tier informal wage-employed...
Employment Informal work Worker mobilityBlog
To die from hunger or the virus: An all too real dilemma for the poor in India (and elsewhere)
On March 24, in a speech to the nation, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, announced a 21-day lockdown. With only four hours’ notice, 1.3 billion people were expected to stay at home and not venture out for three weeks...
Informal work Informality COVID-19Working Paper
Informal work in sub-Saharan Africa: Dead end or steppingstone?Despite rapid economic growth in recent decades, informality remains a persistent phenomenon in the labour markets of many low- and middle-income countries...
Informality Labour market dynamics Sub-Saharan Africa