The authors empirically investigate the relationship between energy consumption and the size of the informal economy. Relying on panel data regression models, their results show that at the aggregate level, energy intensity is inversely related to the size of the informal sector, providing...

This paper employs (1) a three-sector structuralist model of development with informal and formal activities and (2) a global one-sector model with demand determined outputs and bargained distribution to investigate whether India's growth performance can be sustained, where the country might...

There are two divergent perspectives on the impact of subcontracting on firms in the informal sector. According to the benign view, formal sector firms prefer linkages with relatively modern firms in the informal sector, and subcontracting enables capital accumulation and technological...

This study analyses the impact of the conditional cash transfer programme, Programa Bolsa Família, on the occupational composition of the Brazilian labour market. The methodology relies on a discontinuity in the programme eligibility rule regarding children's age to attain the identification of...

This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the potential impacts of the Lei do Empreendedor Individual (Individual Entrepreneur Law). We intend to present evidence that helps clarify, albeit only partially, whether the policy was successful in promoting: i) micro-entrepreneurship in Brazil;...

In Hotelling's fundamental model (1929), the geographical distance and high transportation costs grant firms present in a market a certain power over local buyers in their neighborhoods. Starting from his model, this study shows that in the competition between a bank and a microfinance...

Gender differences have long been documented in earnings, employment opportunities, and time spent within the unpaid care economy. This paper joins the recent efforts in the economics literature on gender differences in asset ownership. Specifically, it investigates whether a gender-specific...

In this paper, I investigate to what extent the cross-country variation in nominal interest rates can be explained as being due to governments' optimal response to economic conditions such as tax collection costs, tax evasion and government consumption needs. In particular, I study the effects...

This paper considers the private sector wage earners in Egypt and examine their wage distribution during 1998-2012 using Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey. We first estimate Mincer wage equations both at the mean and at different quantiles of the wage distribution taking into account observable...

The paper aims at comparing the formal and informal labour markets in the Central and Eastern European new EU Member States and candidate countries of the European Union. First, the current situation of the labour market is described, focusing on the recent developments since the breaking up of...