Does It Matter To Be Informal? Type of Employment and Public Opinions in the MENA Region

Description

Informal employment can have major effects on public opinion given its large and persistent size in developing countries. A number of studies consider informal workers as outsiders and examine the relationship between informality and political attitudes. We extend this literature by focusing on countries in the MENA region, which have sizable and stable shares of informal employment, authoritarian regimes and limited social security programs. We also contribute to the literature by accounting for the possible endogeneity between informal employment and public opinions. Our findings show that informality has a negative impact on individuals’ view about government performance and capacity. Both narrow and broad definition of informal employment in the MENA region increases adverse perceptions. Individuals in the informal sector are more skeptical about government's performance on job creation and redistribution. Also, their level of trust towards their government is lower and they declare greater levels of corruption. Moreover, we demonstrate even high-income informal workers evaluate the government more negatively, but the impact of informality gets smaller with income for corruption perceptions and trust. Finally, we show that democracy augments the negative effects of informality on public view about government performance and capacity.

The seminar starts with a 25-minute presentation of the research followed by the comments of the discussant. Then the floor will be open for participants to ask questions and discuss the research. To be able to actively take part in the discussion, please read the draft paper beforehand which is available upon request from the author.

Period	12 Jun 2023
Event title	Inequalities and Democracy Workgroup Seminar
Event type	Seminar
Location	Budapest, HungaryShow on map