Theorical and empirical implications of the new definition of unemployment in colombia

In June 2000 Colombia adopted a new definition of unemployment following the standars of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This change implied a reduction of the unemployment rate of about two (percentage) points. In this paper we contrast the Colombian case with other countries´experiences in terms of the methodological transformation and its empirical implications. Afterwards, we test the empirical support of the change of methodology. Our results suggest specific implications on structural unemployment and its relationship to unemployment people´s educational profile; therefore, they challenge the practical application of the ILO´s standard unemployment definition to the Colombian case.Unemployment, ILO classification, labour force states, measurement errors

Forced displacement and internal migration in Colombia, 1992-2004

This document deconstructs the issue of forced displacement in Colombia, focusing on the period 1992 – 2004, and has two main methodological features. The first is its interdisciplinary approach, which is both sociological and economic. The second is its multilevel orientation, which aims to tackle forced displacement in Colombia on the individual, community and aggregate levels. Given the lack of interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to forced migration, I propose a new one, based on bounded rationality from economic theory and using Castles (2003) and Richmond (1988) for the sociology of forced migration. In order to properly characterise the concept of forced displacement as one of the many modalities of migration, my literature review expands on the thesis’ remit, both in time and scope, including studies of internal migration in Colombia, between 1960 and 2004. The review reveals some interesting lacunas and regularities in the study of forced migration in Colombia: the lack of interdisciplinary studies, the lack of consensus about the real dimension of forced displacement in Colombia - as a consequence of the divergent and hence unreliable nature of current statistics - the historic role of violence for flows of migration in Colombia, the importance of land appropriation and illegal economic activities as catalysts for the decision to migrate, and the specific profiles of gender and ethnic backgrounds. These issues are addressed in three chapters: one concentrates on deconstructing the different statistics available for forced displacement in Colombia, the systems devoted to collect them and the subjective reasons that may explain the differences between them: another evaluates the recurrence of specific patterns of ethnic background and gender among a displaced community and the third evaluates he lack of social cohesion as anomie, through applying the scale of Srole (1956) as used by Lipman and Havens (1965) in their study of the anomie among displaced people in Colombia

La corte constitucional y la flexibilidad del mercado laboral

This document presents a number of theoretical and practical arguments to explain how constitutional jurisprudence (rulings on the constitutionality of laws and on the “acción de tutela”) has become a factor affecting the flexibility of labor legislation in Colombia. Two examples are presented. One of them deals with the acción de tutela, the other with a lawsuit demanding the unconstitutionality of a law. The latter example is formalized through a microeconomic model taken from the producer’s theory to demonstrate how a reduction in the degree of flexibility in labor contracts may affect decisions on wage levels and/or employment.constitution, labor legislation, contracts, labor market flexibility

El perfil de la informalidad laboral en Colombia

We analyze the implementation process of the concept of labor informality into theColombian labor market. Taking this concept as departure point, we dissect labor market informality in Colombia, its main components and features. By using data from the 2010 GEIH-DANE household survey we contrast the informality rate and its components, as given by three different definitions: the standard Colombian one (DANE-PREALC), and a weak" and "strong" ones, being this last one closer to the ICLS-Delhi one. Our results show that despite the fact that the informality rate seems to be around the same level for the two main definitions, informality components and features do variate, mostly due to the fact that the ICLS-Delhi definition is more focused on the quality of employment, whereas the DANE-PREALC one, emphasizes payroll size as identification criteria. We argue that these specific features highly challenge the standard Colombian policy approach to reduce labor informality.**Este documento analiza el proceso de implementación del concepto de informalidad en elanálisis del mercado laboral colombiano. A la luz de dicho concepto, abordamos laevolución de la informalidad laboral en Colombia, sus principales componentes ycaracterísticas. Utilizando información de la Encuesta de Hogares GEIH-DANE 2010contrastamos la tasa de informalidad y su composición, generadas por la definición DANE-PREALC, contra dos definiciones (débil y fuerte), siendo esta última semejante a la sugerida por la CIET-Delhi. Nuestros resultados muestran que si bien la tasa deinformalidad no parece modificarse en términos de su valor, su composición internaadquiere interesantes patrones, en su mayor parte derivados del hecho de que la definición CIET-Delhi enfatiza el análisis de la informalidad en el puesto de trabajo por encima del de informalidad por tamaño de establecimiento. Estas características plantean importantes cuestionamientos a la forma en que las políticas públicas han enfrentado la informalidad laboral en Colombia."Employed, Informal sector, Social Security, Colombia.**Ocupados, Informalidad, Seguridad Social, Colombia

Efectos de la reforma laboral: ¿más trabajo y menos empleos?

La Reforma Laboral de 2002 apuntó a dos objetivos específicos: implementación de mecanismos de protección social y flexibilización laboral. En este documento se analizan algunos de sus efectos haciendo énfasis en la variación de las modalidades de contratación, los cambios en las horas de trabajo demandadas y los efectos en la duración del desempleo. De este análisis se concluye que la Reforma tuvo un efecto \ud intensivo en generar mayor demanda de horas de trabajo pero que sólo tuvo un efecto marginal en la generación de empleo. Por otra parte, la duración del desempleo se redujo en el agregado

Firm level evidence of efficiency wages and labor turnover in Colombia's manufacturing industry

Trabajando con datos de 1241 empresas permanentes de la industria manufacturera de Colombia, el artículo pone a prueba la hipótesis de modelos que relacionan la rotación laboral con salarios de eficiencia. Encontramos evidencia de un número sustancial de empresas que pagan salarios por encima del promedio de su industria y su efecto en la rotación del empleo al interior de las firmas.Working on data of 1241 incumbent firms of the Colombian manufacturing industry this paper tests the hypothesis proposed in models relating turnover and efficiency wage theory. We find evidence of a substantial number of firms paying wages above the industry average and its effect on turn over in firms employmen

Theoretical and empirical implications of the newdefinition of unemployment in Colombia

In June 2000 Colombia adopted a new definition of unemploymentfollowing the standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Thischange implied a reduction of the unemployment rate of abouttwo (percent-age) points. In this paper we contrast the Colombian case with other countries’experiences in terms of the methodological transformationand its empirical im-plications. Afterwards, we test the empirical support of the change of method-ology. Our results suggest specific implications on structural unemploymentand its relationship to unemployed people’s educational profile; therefore, theychallenge the practical application of the ILO’s standard unemployment defin-ition to the Colombian case.En junio de 2000 Colombia adoptó una nueva definición de desempleo siguiendo los estándares de la OIT. Este cambio implicó una reducción de la tasa de desempleo del orden de dos puntos porcentuales. En este documento contrastamos el caso Colombiano con las experiencias de otros países en términos de la transformación metodológica y sus implicaciones empíricas. Posteriormente, evaluamos el soporte empírico del cambio de metodología. Nuestros resultados sugieren implicaciones específicas sobre el desempleo estructural y su relación con el perfil educativo de los desempleados; por lo tanto, cuestionan la aplicación práctica de la definición estándar de desempleo de la OIT al caso colombiano