The Job Ladder Transforming Informal Work and Livelihoods in Developing Countries

by Fields, Gary S.; Gindling, T. H.; Sen, Kunal; Danquah, Michael; Schotte, Simone

• ISBN13: 9780192867339
• ISBN10: 0192867334
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780192692900
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-06-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Author Biography

Gary S. Fields, John P. Windmuller Professor of International and Comparative Labor and Professor of Economics, Cornell University,T. H. Gindling, Professor of Economics and Affiliate Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland Baltimore County,Kunal Sen, Director, UNU-WIDER, Helsinki,Michael Danquah, Research Fellow, UNU-WIDER, Helsinki,Simone Schotte, Visiting Researcher, UNU-WIDER, Helsinki

Gary S. Fields is the John P. Windmuller Professor of International and Comparative Labor and Professor of Economics at Cornell University, Program Coordinator of the IZA Institute for Labor Economics Program on Labor and Development, and a UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow. He has been an Ivy League teacher and professor for fifty years, first at Yale University and then at Cornell University. He teaches and conducts research on labor economics and development economics. He is the 2014 winner of the IZA Prize in Labor Economics, the top world-wide award in the field, and a three-time winner of the General Mills Foundation Award for Exemplary Graduate Teaching.


Tim Gindling is Professor of Economics, Affiliate Professor of Public Policy, and the 2020-2021 Lipitz Professor of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). His research focuses on the study of factors influencing the distribution of wages, income, and work in developing economies. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Costa Rica and the National Autonomous University of Costa Rica, and is the subject editor for economic development of the IZA World of Labor. His publications include the book Toward More Efficient and Effective Public Social Spending in Central America (with Pablo Acosta, Rita Almeida and Christine Lao Peña) and over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.


Kunal Sen is Director of UNU-WIDER, Helsinki, and Professor of Development Economics at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. He has three decades of experienced in applied development economics research. He has authored eight books and is the editor of five volumes on the economics and political economy of development. His main area of research is the political economy of growth and development, international finance, the dynamics of poverty, social exclusion, female labour force participation, and the informal sector in developing economies. He was awarded the Sanjaya Lall Prize in 2006 and the Dudley Seers Prize in 2003 for his publications.

Michael Danquah is a Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. He is a development economist currently serving as focal point for the projects 'Transforming informal work and livelihoods' and 'African Cities' projects. He previously worked in the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, and his research interests are in economic development in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily focussing on issues such as informality and productivity growth, among others. His work has been published in journals such as Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, and Small Business Economics.


Simone Schotte is a Visiting Researcher at UNU-WIDER. She is a development economist focusing on inequality, social stratification, and labour markets research. She holds a PhD from the University of Göttingen, and prior to her time at UNU-WIDER, she worked at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and was a consultant to the World Bank. Her research has been published in journals such as World Development, Journal of Economic Inequality, Journal of Development Studies, Kyklos, and International Migration Review, among others.

Table of Contents

List of figures
List of tables
List of abbreviations
Notes on contributors
I. Introduction
1. The job ladder, Gary S. Fields, Tim Gindling, Kunal Sen, Michael Danquah, and Simone Schotte
2. Informality and work status, Gary S. Fields
II. Asia
3. Transforming informal work and livelihoods in China, Carl Lin, Linxiang Ye, and Wei Zhang
4. Moving up or down the job ladder in India: Examining informality-formality transitions, Rajesh Raj Natarajan, Simone Schotte, and Kunal Sen
5. Progress and stagnation in the livelihood of informal workers in an emerging economy, Mayang Rizky, Daniel Suryadarma, and Asep Suryahadi
III. Latin America
6. Transforming informal work and livelihoods in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Enrique Alaniz, T.H. Gindling, Catherine Mata, and Diego Rojas
7. Informality, labour transitions, and the livelihoods of workers in Latin America, Roxana Maurizio and Ana Paula Monsalvo
8. Self-employment and labour market dynamics of men and women in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Enrique Alaniz, Alma Espino, and T.H. Gindling
9. Informal work in urban Mexico: characteristics, dynamics, and workers' preferences, Robert Duval-Hernández
IV. Sub-Saharan Africa
10. Dynamics of off-farm self-employment in the West African Sahel, Sènakpon Fidèle A. Dedehouanou, and Didier Y. Alia
11. Informal-formal workers' transition in Nigeria: A livelihood analysis, Abiodun O. Folawewo and Olusegun A. Orija
12. Informal-formal transitions in work status in sub-Saharan Africa: A comparative perspective, Michael Danquah, Simone Schotte, and Kunal Sen
V. North Africa and the Middle East
13. Evolution of vulnerable employment in Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia, Shireen AlAzzawi and Vladimir Hlasny
VI. Lessons Learnt
14. How to transform informal work and livelihoods? Lessons learnt and policy options, Gary S. Fields, T.H. Gindling, Kunal Sen, Michael Danquah, and Simone Schotte
Appendix A: Work status definition and operationalization
Appendix B: Job ladder
Appendix C: Work status dynamics
Index