Moving in and moving up: The labor market dynamics of men and women in Nicaragua and El Salvador

• In Event: Labor market and changes in the economic structure

Abstract

We use individual and household level panel data to study labor market dynamics, with a focus on what factors help men and women to achieve advantageous jobs in the labor market and whether those factors differ between men and women. Specifically, we examine the influence of personal characteristics (such as education), family characteristics (such as the number of children), and job characteristics (such as the industry sector of employment) in determining whether a women (or man) moves up into an advantageous labor market state from an unfavorable state. We consider three labor market states to be “advantageous” (“favorable” in Spanish): (1) formal salaried employees, (2) non- agricultural self-employed workers and employers with a decent income (defined as a household consumption above the poverty line) or an employer with a successful and growing firm (defined as employers with more than 5 employees or an employer of firms with fewer than 5 employees whose firm increased the number of employees last year), and (3) agricultural self-employed workers or employer with a decent income or an employer of a successful and growing firm. We examine the transitions into and out of these advantageous labor market states and other labor market and non-labor market states including informal salaried employment, unfavorable non-agricultural self-employment, unfavorable agricultural self-employment, unemployment and out of the labor force (distinguishing between those going to school and those not).

Author

• Thomas H Gindling, University of Maryland/Baltimore County