Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36148 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4461
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The objective of this paper is to analyse the existence or not of a wage curve in Colombia, paying special attention to the differences between formal and informal workers, an issue that has been systematically ignored in the wage curve literature. The obtained results using microdata from the Colombian Continuous Household Survey (CHS) between 2002 and 2006 show the existence of a wage curve with a negative slope for the Colombian economy. Using information on metropolitan areas, the estimates of the elasticity of individual wages to local unemployment rates was -0.07, a value that is very close to those obtained for other countries. However, the disaggregation of statistical information for formal and informal workers has shown significant differences among both groups of workers. In particular, for the less protected groups of the labour market, informal workers (both men and women), a high negatively sloped wage curve was found. This result is consistent with the conclusions from efficiency wage theoretical models and should be taken into account when analysing the functioning of regional labour markets in developing countries.
Subjects: 
Wage curve
unemployment
formal and informal sectors
JEL: 
J30
J60
O17
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
106.13 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.