The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets : Evidence from Peru

This paper provides new evidence on the impacts of the COVID-19 economic crisis on a labor market with a high prevalence of informality. The analysis uses a rich longitudinal household survey for Peru that contains a host of individual and job outc...

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Main Authors: Cueva, Ronald, Del Carpio, Ximena, Winkler, Hernan
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/614731621951519340/The-Impacts-of-COVID-19-on-Informal-Labor-Markets-Evidence-from-Peru
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35636
id okr-10986-35636
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-356362021-06-03T05:10:44Z The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets : Evidence from Peru Cueva, Ronald Del Carpio, Ximena Winkler, Hernan CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT INFORMALITY LABOR MARKET WORKING FROM HOME GENDER PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION JOB LOSS EMPLOYMENT This paper provides new evidence on the impacts of the COVID-19 economic crisis on a labor market with a high prevalence of informality. The analysis uses a rich longitudinal household survey for Peru that contains a host of individual and job outcomes before and during the first months of the lockdown in 2020. The findings show that workers who had jobs in non-essential and informal sectors were significantly more likely to become unemployed. In contrast to developed countries, having a job amenable to working from home is not correlated with job loss when controlling for informal status. This is consistent with the high level of labor market segmentation observed in Peru, where high-skilled occupations are disproportionately concentrated in the formal sector, which was also better targeted by policies aimed at supporting firms and job protection during the crisis. In addition, the findings show that women were more likely to lose their jobs because female-dominated sectors are more intensive in face-to-face interactions and thereby more affected by social distancing measures. Increased childcare responsibilities also help explain the worse impacts on women in rural areas. Finally, workers who depended on public transportation before the crisis were more likely to lose their jobs during the early months of the pandemic. 2021-06-02T13:04:44Z 2021-06-02T13:04:44Z 2021-05 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/614731621951519340/The-Impacts-of-COVID-19-on-Informal-Labor-Markets-Evidence-from-Peru http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35636 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9675 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Peru
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
INFORMALITY
LABOR MARKET
WORKING FROM HOME
GENDER
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
JOB LOSS
EMPLOYMENT
spellingShingle CORONAVIRUS
COVID-19
PANDEMIC IMPACT
INFORMALITY
LABOR MARKET
WORKING FROM HOME
GENDER
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
JOB LOSS
EMPLOYMENT
Cueva, Ronald
Del Carpio, Ximena
Winkler, Hernan
The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets : Evidence from Peru
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Peru
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9675
description This paper provides new evidence on the impacts of the COVID-19 economic crisis on a labor market with a high prevalence of informality. The analysis uses a rich longitudinal household survey for Peru that contains a host of individual and job outcomes before and during the first months of the lockdown in 2020. The findings show that workers who had jobs in non-essential and informal sectors were significantly more likely to become unemployed. In contrast to developed countries, having a job amenable to working from home is not correlated with job loss when controlling for informal status. This is consistent with the high level of labor market segmentation observed in Peru, where high-skilled occupations are disproportionately concentrated in the formal sector, which was also better targeted by policies aimed at supporting firms and job protection during the crisis. In addition, the findings show that women were more likely to lose their jobs because female-dominated sectors are more intensive in face-to-face interactions and thereby more affected by social distancing measures. Increased childcare responsibilities also help explain the worse impacts on women in rural areas. Finally, workers who depended on public transportation before the crisis were more likely to lose their jobs during the early months of the pandemic.
format Working Paper
author Cueva, Ronald
Del Carpio, Ximena
Winkler, Hernan
author_facet Cueva, Ronald
Del Carpio, Ximena
Winkler, Hernan
author_sort Cueva, Ronald
title The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets : Evidence from Peru
title_short The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets : Evidence from Peru
title_full The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets : Evidence from Peru
title_fullStr The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets : Evidence from Peru
title_full_unstemmed The Impacts of COVID-19 on Informal Labor Markets : Evidence from Peru
title_sort impacts of covid-19 on informal labor markets : evidence from peru
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/614731621951519340/The-Impacts-of-COVID-19-on-Informal-Labor-Markets-Evidence-from-Peru
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35636
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