Sifting through the Data : Labor Markets in Haiti through a Turbulent Decade (2001-2012)
In Latin America, labor markets have been the main channel through which growth has reduced poverty, with higher labor income accounting for 49 percent of the reduction in poverty in 2008–13. Understanding labor markets is critical to designing pol...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/02/25888078/sifting-through-data-labor-markets-haiti-through-turbulent-decade-2001-2012 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23899 |
| Summary: | In Latin America, labor markets have
been the main channel through which growth has reduced
poverty, with higher labor income accounting for 49 percent
of the reduction in poverty in 2008–13. Understanding labor
markets is critical to designing policies and programs aimed
at reducing poverty. With close to 70 percent of the
population under age 30 years, labor markets are bound to be
central to defining Haiti's future. Yet, labor analysis
in Haiti has been constrained by the dearth of data and the
focus on measuring the impact of the 2010 earthquake. This
present paper contributes to filling this gap by providing
an overview of Haiti's labor markets and the
determinants of labor income over a decade, focusing on
growing urban areas. The paper also contributes to the
research on Haiti in general, as well as labor markets in
fragile countries such as Haiti, in particular through an
unprecedented effort to harmonize three household surveys
conducted between 2001 and 2012. Building on this exercise,
the study provides new insights into the development of
labor markets in a particularly turbulent decade for Haiti,
one that was marked by the political crisis of 2004 and the
earthquake of 2010. In spite of the earthquake, the analysis
shows that Haiti’s labor markets are characterized by
continuity over the period. Somewhat surprisingly, the
defining features remain overall unchanged in spite of the
shock, pointing to heavy forces shaping economic and labor dynamics. |
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