美联储-Arepas不是Tacos：拉丁美洲劳动力市场（英）

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve SystemInternational Finance Discussion PapersISSN 1073-2500 (Print)ISSN 2767-4509 (Online)Number 1396September 2024Arepas are not tacos: On the labor markets of Latin AmericaMaria Aristizabal-Ramirez, Cezar Santos, and Alejandra TorresPlease cite this paper as:Aristizabal-Ramirez, Maria, Cezar Santos, and Alejandra Torres (2024).“Arepas arenot tacos:On the labor markets of Latin America,” International Finance Discus-sion Papers 1396.Washington:Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,https://doi.org/10.17016/IFDP.2024.1396.NOTE: International Finance Discussion Papers (IFDPs) are preliminary materials circulated to stimu-late discussion and critical comment. The analysis and conclusions set forth are those of the authors anddo not indicate concurrence by other members of the research staff or the Board of Governors. Referencesin publications to the International Finance Discussion Papers Series (other than acknowledgement) shouldbe cleared with the author(s) to protect the tentative character of these papers. Recent IFDPs are availableon the Web at www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/. This paper can be downloaded without charge from theSocial Science Research Network electronic library at www.ssrn.com.Arepas are not Tacos: On the LaborMarkets of Latin America*Maria Aristizabal-Ramirez†Cezar Santos‡Alejandra Torres§July 17, 2024AbstractThis paper examines labor markets across Latin American coun-tries, revealing substantial differences in unemployment, informal-ity, and worker transitions. Using surveys from eight countries,we construct comparable statistics on employment stocks and mo-bility patterns.Notable cross-country differences emerge, witheconomies mostly clustered into high unemployment-low infor-mality or low unemployment-high informality groups. Transitionprobabilities and directional flows also vary significantly. We high-light the importance of using country-specific parameters whensimulating labor market and aggregate outcomes. Finally, we com-pare our main results with those by sex and education groups.JEL classifications: E24, E26, J46, O54Keywords: Latin America, Labor markets, Informality, Unemploy-ment, Transitions*We have benefited from helpful comments from Matias Busso, Joaqu´ın Garc´ıa-Cabo, John Leahy, Renata Narita, Pablo Ottonello and Todd Schoellman. The viewsexpressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent thoseof the Inter-American Development Bank or the views of the Board of Governors ofthe Federal Reserve System or any other person associated with the Federal ReserveSystem.†Federal Reserve Board. Email: maria.aristizabalramirez@frb.gov‡Inter-American Development Bank & CEPR. Email: cezarsantos.econ@gmail.com§Inter-American Development Bank. Email: aletorres6277@gmail.com1IntroductionHow similar are Latin American labor markets? Are informality and un-employment high everywhere? What about transition rates? Do work-ers move between the