The effects of tax incentives for small firms on employment levels

This paper will examine the effects of tax incentives for small businesseson employment level evaluating a program with this purpose implemented in Brazil in the 1990s. We first develop a theoretical framework which guides both the de nition of the parameters of interest and their identi cation. Selection problems both into the treatment group and into the data sampleare tackled by combining fi xed effects methods and regression discontinuity design on alternative sub-samples of a longitudinal database of manufacturing fi rms. The results show that on the one hand the size composition of thetreated fi rms may be changed due to the survival of some smaller fi rms that would have exited had it not been eligible to the program. On the other hand, the treated fi rms who do not depend on the program to survive do employ more workers.

An exploratory analysis of the effects of the formalisation policy for individual micro-entrepreneurs

This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the potential impacts of the Lei do Empreendedor Individual (Individual Entrepreneur Law). We intend to present evidence that helps clarify, albeit only partially, whether the policy was successful in promoting: i) micro-entrepreneurship in Brazil; and ii) the formalisation of entrepreneurs. Regarding the promotion of micro-entrepreneurship, there is evidence that the policy may have achieved this particular goal. It is worth noting, however, that the evidence in this study suggests that larger businesses could be reducing their scale in order to fit within the programme requirements, as well as there being a possibility that certain companies, particularly smaller ones, might be using the programme to change their working relationships with their employees, from wage-earning work to services rendered. The policy seems to have had a positive effect on the formalisation of individual entrepreneurs in terms of social security contributions, but not in the rate of registration in the National Register of Legal Entities (CNPJ)

Bolsa família, escolha ocupacional e informalidade no Brasil

This study analyzes the impact of conditional cash transfer program Bolsa Familia in the occupational composition Brazilian labor market. The methodology relies on a discontinuity in the program elegibility rule regarding children's age to attain the identification of a LATE parameter. The analysis is carried out with 2006 microdata from National Household Sample Survey (PNAD/IBGE). Our results suggest the cash transfer program does not affect the occupational choice of Brazilian adults among formal and informal jobs

Bolsa Família, occupational choice and informality in Brazil

This study analyses the impact of the conditional cash transfer programme, Programa Bolsa Família, on the occupational composition of the Brazilian labour market. The methodology relies on a discontinuity in the programme eligibility rule regarding children's age to attain the identification of a LATE parameter. The analysis is carried out with 2006 microdata from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). Our results suggest that the cash transfer does not affect the occupational choice of Brazilian adults among formal and informal jobs

Determinantes da expansão do emprego formal: o que explica o aumento do tamanho médio dos estabelecimentos?

Esse trabalho tem o intuito de contribuir para a investigação dos determinantes da aceleração no crescimento do emprego formal na última década. As evidências apresentadas apontam que essa aceleração se deve a uma reversão na tendência do númeromédio de empregados por estabelecimento, em contraponto a uma tendência de crescimento constante no número de estabelecimentos. Investigaçõesmais detalhadas mostram evidências de que esse resultado não é derivado de mudanças na composição setorial que favoreça setores com maiores escalas de operação, nem um aprofundamento do processo de seleção que penaliza os pequenos estabelecimentos. As evidências apontam que a seleção teria contribuído para uma diminuição do tamanho médio, mas esse efeito foi contrabalançado por um nível de emprego maior nas firmas mais novas.The main goal of this paper is to analyze the increase of Brazilian formal employment growth rate in the last decade. The evidence suggests that this acceleration is due to a reversal in the trend of the average number of employees per establishment. More detailed investigations show evidence that this result is not derived from changes in industry composition that favors sectors with larger scales of operation, or a deepening of the process of selection, which penalizes the smaller establishments. As a matter of fact the selection component would have contributed to a decrease in the average firm size, but this effect was counterbalanced by a higher initial employment level in the most recent firms cohort

O estigma da perda de um emprego formal no Brasil

We investigate if the labor market stigmatizes fired workers, by comparing their trajectories with individuals who lost their jobs after the establishments they used to work closed down. Using RAIS data for formal workers, we find that being fired significantly reduces the chances of finding a new formal job, and even when the individual succeed in doing so, he/she receives an initial wage 10% lower than his/her counterpart from a closed establishment. These results are robust to different estimation methods and sets of controls in the regressions

Mudanças organizacionais nas empresas brasileiras: Uma análise a partir das estruturas ocupacionais

The first goal of this paper is to present spatial and industry-wide representative new results on organizational change for Brazilian establishments. The results are based on new proposed measures and capture not only incidence of organizational change but also the level of intensity of this process, when it occurs. Another goal of the paper is to provide empirical evidences that support the identification of the main determinants of organizational change in Brazil. We claim that the empirical arguments on this issue can be grouped in two strains, according to the predicted heterogeneity level in organizational change among similar establishments. By computing some indicators related to this feature for Brazilian establishments we are able to identify which strain fits better the Brazilian case

Mudanças Organizacionais nas Empresas Brasileiras: Uma Análise a Partir das Estruturas Ocupacionais

O primeiro objetivo deste artigo é mostrar novos resultados sobre mudanças organizacionais nos estabelecimentos brasileiros, de forma representativa em termos geográficos e setorial. Os resultados captam tanto a incidência como a intensidade das mudanças organizacionais nos estabelecimentos produtivos brasileiros, e se baseiam em medidas inéditas. O outro objetivo do artigo consiste em mostrar evidências empíricas que ajudem a identificar os determinantes mais relevantes desse processo para o caso brasileiro. Argumentaremos que a literatura que trata desse tema pode ser dividida em dois grupos no que diz respeito ao grau de homogeneidade das mudanças organizacionais entre estabelecimentos similares. Ao computar indicadores sobre essa característica das mudanças organizacionais para os estabelecimentos brasileiros, identificamos qual é o conjunto de teorias que parece ser mais relevante para o nosso contexto. The first goal of this paper is to present spatial and industry-wide representative new results on organizational change for Brazilian establishments. The results are based on new proposed measures and capture not only incidence of organizational change but also the level of intensity of this process, when it occurs. Another goal of the paper is to provide empirical evidences that support the identification of the main determinants of organizational change in Brazil. We claim that the empirical arguments on this issue can be grouped in two strains, according to the predicted heterogeneity level in organizational change among similar establishments. By computing some indicators related to this feature for Brazilian establishments we are able to identify which strain fits better the Brazilian case.

Economic expansion and increase in labout market formality: a poaching approach

This paper investigates the relationship between economic expansion and the degree of formalization for the Brazilian labour market in the recent period. We present a theoretical framework that attempts to explain this relationship through the dynamics of firms hiring strategies. The main predictions are: the share of formal employment rises as the unemployment rate falls, and that the formal-informal wage gap increases, at least at the beginning of the economic expansion. In the empirical part, we use longitudinal microdata from a Brazilian household survey to check whether these two predictions are confirmed. To a large extent our results corroborate both predictions