Suchergebnisse

The article adds to research on in-work poverty, 'precarious' work and informal economic activity. It provides ethnographic data on mobility between formal and informal work in Russia; industrial 'normative' employment is seen as precarious due to on-the-job insecurity (Standing 2011). Insecurity is understood through the prism of low-wages, lack of control over work processes, but above all the imperative on workers to become flexible, self-regulating subjects of the reformed neoliberal Russia. The discourse of self-governmentality is contrasted by informants to interpretations of more benign production regimes under socialism (Burawoy 1992). Exit strategies from, and discourses of resistance to, the new strictures of waged employment are then examined. These are sustained by access to an embedded blue-collar identity, and the social networks that support and reinforce such ties.

Gender critiques of comparative welfare state research have so far predominantly focused on OECD countries but less so in countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Existing comparative social policy research in these regions often cites the importance of informal networks and family for social protection but less attention is paid into gender relations and their importance for the social reproduction of these welfare regimes. The article comparatively analyses gender differences in the sphere of production (captured by the gender gap in formal and informal employment) and social reproduction (captured by time spent on unpaid domestic work). The article identifies regional patterns and explores implications for women's ability to access welfare and the labour market. Additionally, it shows that informal activities (employment, domestic work) are extensive among many African, Asian, Latin American, but also specific OECD, welfare regimes. The article contributes first by incorporating gender in the analysis of global welfare regime and second by highlighting the importance of informal relationships for the analysis of welfare regimes.

AbstractThis paper investigates the role of consumer credit growth and expansion of consumer financial services on the reduction of informal employment in a developing country. I argue that financial services growth should lead to a decline in the share of informal employment given that consumers whose borrowing constraints are relaxed are more likely to purchase goods with consumer credit and more likely to demand formal contracts. I test this hypothesis by exploiting the regional variation in consumer credit growth in Turkey. In order to address the endogeneity of financial services, I employ minority population loss between 1893 and 1935 in as an instrument. The identification strategy relies on the fact that minorities were main users of financial instruments as they were the trading class in the former Ottoman Empire. The results provide evidence in favor of a positive causal impact of consumer credit growth on formal employment, especially on low-skilled labor.

The article presents the results of a desk study of documents adopted by the ministers of labor and employment of the BRICS countries with special focus on formalization of labor markets. Declarations and other documents were analyzed through the prism of compliance with the concept of decent work, human centered development and development of inclusive labor markets. The author concludes that informal employment remains a challenge for the BRICS countries, both for workers and for governments. For informally employed workers, this status is increasing the risks of violation of labor rights, dismissal, exposure to unsafe or hazardous working conditions, limitation of accessibility of training and re-training needed to update their skills and competences, the risk of not accumulating sufficient pension rights by the time of retirement, etc. For governments, the phenomenon of informality limits their fiscal space and capacity to develop and implement employment and social protection programs and strategies aimed at formalizing labor markets, increasing the well-being of the population and developing human capital. The multilateral co-creation of the BRICS countries in addressing labor and employment issues demonstrates their strong commitment to ensuring full implementation of the decent work concept within their human centered and inclusive development strategy. The constant exchange of information and experience contributes to the fine-tuning of national employment policies to respond to the emerging challenges and opportunities. Strengthening of cooperation among the BRICS countries increases the perspectives of progress in formalizing their labor markets.

Abstract
Safety net programs, common in settings with high informality like Latin America, often use a means test to establish eligibility. We ask: in settings in which organised crime provides lucrative opportunities in the informal market, will discouraging formal employment via benefits eligibility criteria increase criminal enterprise activity? We link administrative socioeconomic microdata with the universe of arrests in Medellín over a decade, and exploit exogenous variation in formal-sector employment around a socioeconomic-score cutoff, below which individuals receive generous benefits if not formally employed. Regression discontinuity estimates confirm this policy reduced formal-sector employment and generated a corresponding increase in arrests associated with organised crime. We do not find increases for crimes unlikely to be associated with organised entities, such as crimes of impulse or opportunity. Effects on arrests are strongest in neighbourhoods where organised crime is most prevalent.

AbstractVariations in state welfare policies in the reform era may affect adolescents through two mechanisms: A competing labor market hypothesis posits that stringent state welfare policies may reduce adolescent employment; and a signaling hypothesis posits that stringent welfare policies may promote enrollment. To test these hypotheses, we use a dynamic joint model of adolescents' school enrollment and formal employment, separating state welfare policies from non‐welfare state policies, state labor market conditions, and unobserved state characteristics. Longitudinal data from the NLSY97 on adolescents aged 14 to 18 and various state data sources over the period 1994–1999 support the competing labor market effect but not the signaling effect. In particular, lower‐income dropouts suffer more severely from fewer labor market opportunities when state welfare policies are more stringent, which indicates that welfare reform may compromise work opportunities for lower‐income dropouts. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

This paper uses seven individual-level surveys between 1995 and 2014 to analyse the hypothesis that formal education increases wage-employment and formal sector employment in Nepal. The results show that formal education has increased substantially. However, formal sector employment has remained relatively stable. Individuals with tertiary education are about twice as often employed in the formal sector than individuals without completed primary education. This relationship is less strong for secondary education (22%) and primary education (7%). The results further show that about half of the relationship arises from working in government-related sectors. The overall picture regarding the relationship between formal education and formal sector employment has remained similar over time. However, the strength of the relationship between completed primary and secondary education and formal sector employment has decreased over time. The relationship between tertiary education and formal sector employment has remained stable unless the government related sectors are excluded. ; ISSN:2091-2560 ; ISSN:2091-0118