Do Minimum Wages In Latin America And The Caribbean Matter Evidence From 19 Countries

Author : Nicolai Kristensen,Wendy L. Cunningham
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 49 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Income distribution
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Do Minimum Wages in Latin America and the Caribbean Matter? by Nicolai Kristensen,Wendy L. Cunningham Pdf

"Despite the existence of minimum wage legislation in most Latin American countries, there is little empirical evidence demonstrating its impact on the distribution of wages. In this study the authors analyze cross-country data for 19 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to gain an understanding of if and how minimum wages affect wage distributions in LAC countries. Although there is no single minimum wage institution in the LAC region, the authors find regional trends. Minimum wages affect the wage distribution in both the formal and, especially, the informal sector, both at the minimum wage and at multiples of the minimum. The minimum does not uniformly benefit low-wage workers: in countries where the minimum wage is relatively low compared to mean wages, the minimum wage affects the more disadvantaged segments of the labor force, namely informal sector workers, women, young and older workers, and the low skilled, but in countries where the minimum wage is relatively high compared to the wage distribution, it primarily affects wages of the high skilled. This indicates that the minimum does not generally lift the wages of all, but instead, it offers a wage into which employers can "lock in" wages that are already near that level. Thus, minimum wage legislation is more far-reaching than originally thought, affecting both the uncovered informal sector and those earning above the minimum. In addition, the relative level of the minimum wage is important for determining whose wages are affected. "--World Bank web site.

Author : Nicolai Kristensen,Wendy Cunningham
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:931673516

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Do Minimum Wages in Latin America and the Caribbean Matter? Evidence from 19 Countries by Nicolai Kristensen,Wendy Cunningham Pdf

Despite the existence of minimum wage legislation in most Latin American countries, there is little empirical evidence demonstrating its impact on the distribution of wages. In this study the authors analyze cross-country data for 19 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to gain an understanding of if and how minimum wages affect wage distributions in LAC countries. Although there is no single minimum wage institution in the LAC region, the authors find regional trends. Minimum wages affect the wage distribution in both the formal and, especially, the informal sector, both at the minimum wage and at multiples of the minimum. The minimum does not uniformly benefit low-wage workers: in countries where the minimum wage is relatively low compared to mean wages, the minimum wage affects the more disadvantaged segments of the labor force, namely informal sector workers, women, young and older workers, and the low skilled, but in countries where the minimum wage is relatively high compared to the wage distribution, it primarily affects wages of the high skilled. This indicates that the minimum does not generally lift the wages of all, but instead, it offers a wage into which employers can "lock in" wages that are already near that level. Thus, minimum wage legislation is more far-reaching than originally thought, affecting both the uncovered informal sector and those earning above the minimum. In addition, the relative level of the minimum wage is important for determining whose wages are affected.

Author : William Francis Maloney,Jairo Núñez Méndez,Wendy L. Cunningham
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 32 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Income distribution
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Measuring the Impact of Minimum Wages by William Francis Maloney,Jairo Núñez Méndez,Wendy L. Cunningham Pdf

Simple numerical measures of the minimum wage may offer deceptive indicators of its impact. Alternative measures, such as kernel density or cumulative distribution plots, are more reliable, and highlight influences higher in the wage distribution or on the informal sector. Panel employment data from Colombia, where minimum wages seem high and binding, show that the minimum wage can have important impacts on wages and unemployment across the wage distribution.

Author : James J. Heckman,Carmen Pages
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 585 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2007-11-01
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780226322858

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Law and Employment by James J. Heckman,Carmen Pages Pdf

Law and Employment analyzes the effects of regulation and deregulation on Latin American labor markets and presents empirically grounded studies of the costs of regulation. Numerous labor regulations that were introduced or reformed in Latin America in the past thirty years have had important economic consequences. Nobel Prize-winning economist James J. Heckman and Carmen Pagés document the behavior of firms attempting to stay in business and be competitive while facing the high costs of complying with these labor laws. They challenge the prevailing view that labor market regulations affect only the distribution of labor incomes and have little or no impact on efficiency or the performance of labor markets. Using new micro-evidence, this volume shows that labor regulations reduce labor market turnover rates and flexibility, promote inequality, and discriminate against marginal workers. Along with in-depth studies of Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Jamaica, and Trinidad, Law and Employment provides comparative analysis of Latin American economies against a range of European countries and the United States. The book breaks new ground by quantifying not only the cost of regulation in Latin America, the Caribbean, and in the OECD, but also the broader impact of this regulation.

Author : Carmen Pag s,Ga lle Le Borgne Pierre,Stefano Scarpetta
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2009-06-19
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0821380257

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Job Creation in Latin America and the Caribbean by Carmen Pag s,Ga lle Le Borgne Pierre,Stefano Scarpetta Pdf

More than a decade has passed since the introduction of comprehensive macroeconomic stabilization packages and trade, fiscal, and financial market reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, growth prospects remain disappointing; labor markets show lackluster performance, with low participation rates, high and persistent informality, and, in some cases, open unemployment. Creating viable and lasting employment is vital to reduce poverty and spread prosperity in the region. The failure to create more and more productive and rewarding jobs carries substantial political, social, and economic costs. 'Job Creation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Recent Trends and Policy Challenges' provides a thorough examination of the labor market trends in the region in recent decades and assesses the role that labor demand and labor supply factors have played in shaping these outcomes.

Author : Damian Grimshaw
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 62 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Minimum wage
ISBN : CORNELL:31924095165738

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Minimum Wages and Pay Equity in Latin America by Damian Grimshaw Pdf

Author : Wendy V. Cunningham
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 154 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780821370124

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Minimum Wages and Social Policy by Wendy V. Cunningham Pdf

Offering evidence from both detailed individual country studies and homogenized statistics across the Latin American and Caribbean region, this book examines the impact of the minimum wage on wages, employment, poverty, income distribution and government budgets in the context of a large informal sector and predominantly unskilled workforces.

Author : Mr.Christopher S Adam,Mr.Edward F Buffie
Publisher : International Monetary Fund
Page : 77 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2020-01-31
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781513527888

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The Minimum Wage Puzzle in Less Developed Countries: Reconciling Theory and Evidence by Mr.Christopher S Adam,Mr.Edward F Buffie Pdf

We show that a dynamic general equilibrium model with efficiency wages and endogenous capital accumulation in both the formal and (non-agricultural) informal sectors can explain the full range of confounding stylized facts associated with minimum wage laws in less developed countries.

Author : Jody Heymann
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 457 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2013-02-13
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780674070905

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Children's Chances by Jody Heymann Pdf

Most parents care deeply about their children. If that were enough, we would not see the inequalities we currently do in children’s opportunities and healthy development—children out of school, children laboring, children living in poverty. While the scale of the problems can seem overwhelming, history has shown that massive progress is possible on problems that once seemed unsolvable. Within the span of less than twenty-five years, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty has been cut in half, the number of children under age five that die each day has dropped by over 12,000, and the percentage of girls attending school has climbed from just three in four to over 90 percent. National action, laws, and public policies fundamentally shape children’s opportunities. Children’s Chances urges a transformational shift from focusing solely on survival to targeting children’s full and healthy development. Drawing on never-before-available comparative data on laws and public policies in 190 countries, Jody Heymann and Kristen McNeill tell the story of what works and what countries around the world are doing to ensure equal opportunities for all children. Covering poverty, discrimination, education, health, child labor, child marriage, and parental care, Children’s Chances identifies the leaders and the laggards, highlights successes and setbacks, and provides a guide for what needs to be done to make equal chances for all children a reality.

Author : Ricardo Hausmann,Francisco R. Rodríguez
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 549 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2015-06-13
Category : History
ISBN : 9780271064642

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Venezuela Before Chávez by Ricardo Hausmann,Francisco R. Rodríguez Pdf

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Venezuela had one of the poorest economies in Latin America, but by 1970 it had become the richest country in the region and one of the twenty richest countries in the world, ahead of countries such as Greece, Israel, and Spain. Between 1978 and 2001, however, Venezuela’s economy went sharply in reverse, with non-oil GDP declining by almost 19 percent and oil GDP by an astonishing 65 percent. What accounts for this drastic turnabout? The editors of Venezuela Before Chávez, who each played a policymaking role in the country’s economy during the past two decades, have brought together a group of economists and political scientists to examine systematically the impact of a wide range of factors affecting the economy’s collapse, from the cost of labor regulation and the development of financial markets to the weakening of democratic governance and the politics of decisions about industrial policy. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Omar Bello, Adriana Bermúdez, Matías Braun, Javier Corrales, Jonathan Di John, Rafael Di Tella, Javier Donna, Samuel Freije, Dan Levy, Robert MacCulloch, Osmel Manzano, Francisco Monaldi, María Antonia Moreno, Daniel Ortega, Michael Penfold, José Pineda, Lant Pritchett, Cameron A. Shelton, and Dean Yang.

Author : Giovanni Andrea Cornia
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2014-01-16
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780191005275

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Falling Inequality in Latin America by Giovanni Andrea Cornia Pdf

The volume aims to document and explain the sizeable decline of income inequality that has taken place in Latin America during the 2000s. It does so through an exploration of inequality changes in six representative countries, and ten policy chapters dealing with macroeconomics, foreign trade, taxation, labour market, human capital formation, and social assistance, which point to the emergence of a 'new policy model'. The volume addresses a major issue in economic development with profound implications for many developing regions and those OECD countries mired in a long-lasting financial crisis and economic stagnation. For at least the last quarter of the twentieth century, Latin America suffered from low growth, rising inequality, and frequent financial crises. However, since the turn of the century, growth accelerated, inequality declined, poverty fell, and macroeconomic stability improved, all this in parallel to the spread of centre-left political regimes in three quarters of the region. This inequality decline has taken many by surprise as, for a long time, the region has been a symbol of a deeply entrenched unequal distribution of assets, incomes, and opportunities, limited or no state redistribution, and a deeply embedded authoritarianism enforcing an unjust status quo. The recent Latin American experience is particularly valuable as inequality was reduced under open economy conditions and in a period of intensifying global integration, which have often been considered as a source of rising inequality. In this sense, however imperfect, the recent Latin American experience may be of interest to countries completing their transition to the market and liberal democracy (as in the former socialist countries of Europe), facing a political transition (as those affected by the Arab Spring, Myanmar and countries in sub-Saharan Africa), or recording rises in inequality and social tensions in spite of rapid economic growth (as in China and India). Until recently there was not much agreement on the drivers of the inequality decline in the region, which was attributed to changes in the supply/demand of skilled workers, improvements in terms of trade, the spread of social assistance schemes, or 'luck'. In this respect, the volume offers the first scholarly and systematic exploration of this unexpected change. As income inequality has been rising and is currently rising in many parts of the world, a good understanding of the Latin American experience over the 2000s is a topic that will inform and generate a lot of attention.

Author : Dani Rodrick,M.R. Rosenzweig
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 1066 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2009-11-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780080931722

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Handbook of Development Economics by Dani Rodrick,M.R. Rosenzweig Pdf

What guidance does academic research really provide to economic policy development? The critical and analytical surveys in this volume investigate links between policies and outcomes by surveying work from broad macroeconomic policies to interventions in microfinance. Asserting that there are no universal correspondences between policies and outcomes, contributors demonstrate instead that only an intense familiarity with the development context and the universe of applicable economic models can generate successful policies. Getting cause-and-effect right is essential for policy design and implementation. With the goal of drawing researchers and policy makers closer, this volume highlights our increasing understanding of ways to combine economic theorizing with careful, thoughtful empirical work. Presents an accurate, self-contained survey of the current state of the field Summarizes the most recent discussions, and elucidates new developments Although original material is also included, the main aim is the provision of comprehensive and accessible surveys

Author : Javier A. Reyes,W. Charles Sawyer
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2011-03-25
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781136814532

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Latin American Economic Development by Javier A. Reyes,W. Charles Sawyer Pdf

Latin America is one of the most interesting parts of the world. The region’s illustrious history, culture, and geography are famous internationally, but in terms of economics, Latin America has been generally associated with problems. For many, the combination of a resource rich region and poor economic conditions has been a puzzle. Latin American Economic Development provides the most up to date exploration of how this happened with a focus on why the continent can be considered to have underperformed, how the various Latin American economies function and the future prospects for the region. This textbook addresses the economic problems of Latin America theme by theme. The first four centuries of Latin American economic development are explained with reference to historical and institutional factors; the role of commodities; import substitution industrialization; and the resultant slow growth of the region. The development of Latin America during the twentieth century is examined through the policies of governments toward international trade and the management of the exchange rate. A result of these policies was the accumulation of significant debt in the region that resulted in substantial economic instability. The final section of the book explains how all of these themes have contributed to two dominant problems for the region: poverty and inequality. The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive text for increasingly popular undergraduate economics courses on Latin America. However, the book has been carefully designed for use by both students majoring in economics and for those in other disciplines looking for a wide-ranging guide to the region. This book should be an invaluable resource for undergraduates looking at Latin American economics, growth and development.

Author : Adriana D. Kugler
Publisher : International Monetary Fund
Page : 36 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2019-07-17
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781484393840

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Impacts of Labor Market Institutions and Demographic Factors on Labor Markets in Latin America by Adriana D. Kugler Pdf

This paper documents recent labor market performance in the Latin American region. The paper shows that unemployment, informality, and inequality have been falling over the past two decades, though still remain high. By contrast, productivity has remained stubbornly low. The paper, then, turns to the potential impacts of various labor market institutions, including employment protection legislation (EPL), minimum wages (MW), payroll taxes, unemployment insurance (UI) and collective bargaining, as well as the impacts of demographic changes on labor market performance. The paper relies on evidence from carefully conducted studies based on micro-data for countries in the region and for other countries with similar income levels to draw conclusions on the impact of labor market institutions and demographic factors on unemployment, informality, inequality and productivity. The decreases in unemployment and informality can be partly explained by the reduced strictness of EPL and payroll taxes, but also by the increased shares of more educated and older workers. By contrast, the fall in inequality starting in 2002 can be explained by a combination of binding MW throughout most of the region and, to a lesser extent, by the introduction of UI systems in some countries and the role of unions in countries with moderate unionization rates. Falling inequality can also be explained by the fall in the returns to skill associated with increased share of more educated and older workers.

Author : José Antonio Ocampo,Jaime Ros
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 959 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2011-07-28
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780199571048

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The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Economics by José Antonio Ocampo,Jaime Ros Pdf

A comprehensive overview of the key factors affecting the development of Latin American economies that examines long-term growth performance, macroeconomic issues, Latin American economies in the global context, technological and agricultural policies, and the evolution of labour markets, the education sector, and social security programmes.