Increasing the Cost of Informal Employment: Evidence from Mexico

A-Tier
Journal: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
Year: 2024
Volume: 16
Issue: 1
Pages: 377-411

Authors (2)

Brenda Samaniego de la Parra (not in RePEc) León Fernández Bujanda (Banco de México)

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We estimate the effect of increasing the cost of informal jobs on formal firms' and workers' outcomes. We combine administrative records and household surveys and exploit exogenous variation in the cost of informality generated by over 480,000 random worksite inspections in Mexico. For informal workers, inspections temporarily increase the probability of being formalized at the inspected firm, but separations also rise. For formal workers, we find temporary increases in the probability of remaining formally employed at the inspected firm and in monthly wages. At the firm level, increasing the cost of informal jobs leads to persistently lower formal employment.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aejapp:v:16:y:2024:i:1:p:377-411
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25