Papers by Reza Arabsheibani
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Jul 1, 2012
Is There an Informal Employment Wage Premium? Evidence from Tajikistan This paper defines informa... more Is There an Informal Employment Wage Premium? Evidence from Tajikistan This paper defines informal sector employment and decomposes the difference in earnings distributions between formal and informal sector employees in Tajikistan for 2007. Using the quantile regression decomposition technique proposed by Machado and Mata (2005), we find a significant informal employment wage premium across the whole earnings distribution. This contrast with earlier studies and casts doubt on the recent literature showing that the informal sector is poorly rewarded. It seems to be the case that the informal employment in Tajikistan is the main source of income.
Social Science Research Network, 2013
We use data from the Kazakhstan Labour Force Survey (KLFS) for the period 2006-2011 to examine fa... more We use data from the Kazakhstan Labour Force Survey (KLFS) for the period 2006-2011 to examine factors that determine informality amongst self-employed men and women. In addition, the paper examines the response of informality propensities to the recent global crisis. The decomposition suggests that the reduction in the predicted probabilities of being informal is mainly attributable to the unexplained component. Individual characteristics have played a relatively small role, except for changes in tenure, hours of work and education.
IZA journal of labor & development, Jan 17, 2014
This paper defines informal sector employment and decomposes the difference in earnings between f... more This paper defines informal sector employment and decomposes the difference in earnings between formal and informal sector employees in Tajikistan for 2007. Using quantile regression decomposition technique proposed by JAE, 20:445-465, 2005 and considering self-selection of individuals into different employment types, we find a significant informal employment wage premium across the whole earnings distribution. Taking advantage of RES, 90:290-299, 2008 matching approach and considering the possibility of misleading results due to different observed characteristics of formal and informal workers, we still find a wage gap in favour of informal sector workers.
Eurasian Economic Review, Oct 4, 2018
Informality is heterogeneous, dynamic and difficult to quantify; the formal-informal gap in earni... more Informality is heterogeneous, dynamic and difficult to quantify; the formal-informal gap in earnings is one major component of it that we wish to examine. Using the 2013 Kazakhstan Labour Force Survey (KLFS), we analyse the returns that formal and informal workers receive for a given set of characteristics and also use a matching technique to decompose the gap. We observe that in Kazakhstan there is a substantial earnings gap in favour of formal workers and that a quarter of the gap remains unexplained. Our study also highlights the importance of matching-based decomposition and distributional analysis in explaining the differences in earnings between formal and informal workers.
Higher Education Review, 1990
Applied Economics, Dec 1, 2001
When the choice variable is continuous, selectivity bias can in principle be dealt with by a proc... more When the choice variable is continuous, selectivity bias can in principle be dealt with by a procedure ®rst suggested by Garen (1984). However, work reported in this paper on the estimation of hedonic wage equations with compensation for dangerous jobs, where selectivity bias could arise through the endogenous choice of jobs according to their riskiness, suggests that the Garen technique may not be robust. The lack of robustness comes from collinearity, which is a result of the common situation where the empirical ®t of the choice equation is moderately successful but not outstanding.
IZA journal of labor & development, Jun 26, 2015
We use data from the Kazakhstan Labour Force Survey (KLFS) for the period 2006-2011 to examine fa... more We use data from the Kazakhstan Labour Force Survey (KLFS) for the period 2006-2011 to examine factors that determine informality amongst self-employed men and women. In addition, the paper examines the response of informality propensities to the recent global crisis. The decomposition suggests that the reduction in the predicted probabilities of being informal is mainly attributable to the unexplained component. Individual characteristics have played a relatively small role, except for changes in tenure, hours of work and education.
Economics Letters, 1989
Abstract This paper uses a sample of Egyptian graduates to investigate a method of testing the sc... more Abstract This paper uses a sample of Egyptian graduates to investigate a method of testing the screening hypothesis proposed by Wiles (1974) and tested by Miller and Volker (1983). The results do not tend to support the screening view.
Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Feb 1, 2004
The effect of new technology on relative demands for workers has been the subject of much researc... more The effect of new technology on relative demands for workers has been the subject of much research in economics. Krueger (1993) and others have studied the impact of computers on earnings in the US and elsewhere. Such studies have been criticised for ignoring the possibility of bias due to unobserved heterogeneity between computer users and non-users, resulting in computer users not being a random subsample of all workers. As well as looking at the effects of computers on earnings in the UK, this paper extends previous analyses by using a sample selection framework to deal with the bias problem. Results indicate not only that returns to computer use are positive but that it is important to correct for the sample selection bias.
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Nov 1, 2006
Returns to Schooling in Kazakhstan: OLS and Instrumental Variables Approach * This paper examines... more Returns to Schooling in Kazakhstan: OLS and Instrumental Variables Approach * This paper examines rates of return to schooling in Kazakhstan using OLS and instrumental variable (IV) methodologies. We use spouse's education and smoking as instruments. We find that spouse's education is a valid instrument and that conventional OLS estimates that assume the exogenous nature of schooling, and hence do not control for endogeneity bias, may underestimate the true rates of return. The results indicate that the returns to schooling in Kazakhstan have increased with transition. This may reflect the relative scarcities of highly educated people in Kazakhstan with human capital that employers require and, following the market reforms, reward accordingly.
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Dec 1, 2006
On Defining and Measuring the Informal Sector * A range of alternative empirical definitions of i... more On Defining and Measuring the Informal Sector * A range of alternative empirical definitions of informal activity have been employed in the literature. Choice of definition is often dictated by data availability. Different definitions may imply very different conceptual understandings of informality. This paper investigates the degree of congruence between three definitions of informality based on employment contract registration, on social security protection and the characteristics of the employer and employment using Brazilian household survey data for the period 1992 to 2001. 64% of the economically active are informal according to at least one definition, but only 40% are informal according to all three. Steady compositional changes have been taking place amongst informal workers, conditional on definition. Econometric analysis reveals that the conditional impact of particular factors (demographic, educational attainment, family circumstances) on the likelihood of informality varies considerably from one definition to another. Results suggest growing heterogeneity within the informal sector. Informal activity may be as much associated with entrepreneurial dynamism as with any desire to avoid costly contract registration and social protection. However there is no a priori reason for entrepreneurial activity to be unprotected. Results in the paper confirm this. Consequently definitions of informality based on occupation and employer size seem the most arbitrary in practice even if conceptually well-founded.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 28, 2022
This paper uses quantile regression techniques to analyze heterogeneous patterns of return to edu... more This paper uses quantile regression techniques to analyze heterogeneous patterns of return to education across the conditional wage distribution in four transition countries. We correct for sample selection bias using a procedure suggested by Buchinsky (2001), which is based on a Newey (1991, 2009) power series expansion. We also examine the empirical implications of allowing for the endogeneity of schooling, using the control function approach proposed by Lee (2007). Using household data from Bulgaria, Russia, Kazakhstan and Serbia in 2003, we show that the return to education is heterogeneous across the earnings distribution. It is also found that accounting for the endogeneity of schooling leads to a higher rate of return to education.
Social Science Research Network, 2010
This paper defines informal sector employment and decomposes the difference in earnings between f... more This paper defines informal sector employment and decomposes the difference in earnings between formal and informal sector employees in Tajikistan for 2007. Using quantile regression decomposition technique proposed by JAE, 20:445-465, 2005 and considering self-selection of individuals into different employment types, we find a significant informal employment wage premium across the whole earnings distribution. Taking advantage of RES, 90:290-299, 2008 matching approach and considering the possibility of misleading results due to different observed characteristics of formal and informal workers, we still find a wage gap in favour of informal sector workers.
Social Science Research Network, 2000
In recent years much attention has been paid to the effect on wages of skill-biased technology, e... more In recent years much attention has been paid to the effect on wages of skill-biased technology, especially the use of computers. Although empirical studies have shown a positive relationship between computer-use and earnings, doubts have been cast on whether this is a causal relationship or merely represents unobserved other factors, which are themselves positively linked to computer usage. In this paper we provide evidence that computers themselves raise wages. Although their impact on wages falls as other controls are included in the regression, it still remains significant whilst the effect of another proxy for unobserved factors becomes insignificant. Furthermore, improvements in computer use have an additional impact on earnings, supporting the productivity interpretation.
African and Asian Studies, 1990
Journal of Development Studies, Jul 1, 2006
This paper estimates changes in the rates of return to human capital across the earnings distribu... more This paper estimates changes in the rates of return to human capital across the earnings distribution using data from over a 10-year period for Brazil. It uses these estimates to simulate the separate impacts of changes in returns to skills and changes in the supply of skills on earnings inequality. Evidence points strongly to growing inequality in rates of return to education in Brazil. This finding suggests that recent macroeconomic and trade reforms have been of most benefit to the skilled rather than the unskilled. Supporting evidence points to an improved competitiveness in the labour market, with workers increasingly rewarded for productivity. However, although increases in returns to education are more pronounced at the top of the earnings distribution, this did not in practice led to increased inequality. This is because levels of education and other labour market-rewarded endowments have increased and offset the rate of return effect. Appropriate education policy is therefore an essential partner for macroeconomic and trade reform if a developing economy is to avoid worsening income inequality.
Economic Systems, 2021
Using data from the 2011 and 2016 Life in Kyrgyzstan surveys, we examine Kyrgyz women's labour su... more Using data from the 2011 and 2016 Life in Kyrgyzstan surveys, we examine Kyrgyz women's labour supply elasticities at the extensive margin. We use Heckman's two-step approach to predict earnings for the non-participating women and then use these predictions to estimate the participation equation. We find that women's labour supply decision is not influenced by their earnings. We also show that there exists a significant gap in employment propensities among ethnic Kyrgyz women in consensual or arranged marriages compared to women in kidnapped-based marriages. This finding suggests that the practice of bride abduction adversely affects women's probability of employment and might have negative consequences on their economic well-being.
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Papers by Reza Arabsheibani