Approaches, concepts and methodologies for measuring labor informality in Colombia

This paper compares the main conceptual and empirical approaches to labor informality in Colombia. These approaches generally take into account conceptual discussions developed in Latin America and present measures differing in the unit of analysis and informality identification criteria. Using data from the Large Integrated Household Survey, it is shown that the size of informality can be different depending on the methodological approach, with a rate ranging from 16 to 59%. When comparing seven methodological approaches to labor informality, disagreement is found regarding the magnitude of informality, its recent evolution, individuals included, and in the influence of socio-economic and occupational attributes on the probability of being an informal worker.