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Carmen Pagés

Inter-American Development Bank, USA, and IZA, Germany

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Chief of the Labor Markets and Social Security Unit of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Research interest

Latin America and the Caribbean, labor markets, social security, informality, productivity, job creation, education, unemployment

Website

https://www.iza.org/person/2246/carmen-pages

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Chief, Labor Markets Division, Inter-American Development Bank, 2009–2017; Principal Research Economist, Inter-American Development Bank 2006–2009, Senior Labor Market Economist, The World Bank, 2004–2006

Past positions

Instructor in the V Summer School for East and Central Europe: Economics of the Market, Bulgaria, 1995; Lecturer, Boston University, 1994-1995

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Boston University

Selected publications

  • “Productivity and resource misallocation in Latin America.” The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics 13:1 (2013): 30 (with M. Busso and L. Madrigal).

  • Does Expanding Health Insurance Beyond Formal-Sector Workers Encourage Informality?: Measuring the Impact of Mexico's Seguro Popular. IDB Publications (Working Papers) 81001, Inter-American Development Bank, 2011 (with R. Aterido and M. Hallward-Driemeier).

  • “Big constraints to small firms’ growth? Business environment and employment growth across firms.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 59:3 (2011) 609-647 (with R. Aterido and M. Hallward-Driemeier).

  • Good Jobs Wanted: Labor Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. New York, 2003.

  • Better Pensions, Better Jobs: Towards Universal Pension Coverage New York: Inter-American Development Bank, 2013 (with M. Bosch and A. Melguizo).

article(s)

  • Do payroll tax cuts boost formal jobs in developing countries?

    Payroll tax cuts in developing economies might be beneficial to the formal sector, even when the informal sector is large

    Carmen Pagés, March 2017
    Informal employment accounts for more than half of total employment in Latin America and the Caribbean, and an even higher percentage in Africa and South Asia. It is associated with lack of social insurance, low tax collection, and low productivity jobs. Lowering payroll taxes is a potential lever to increase formal employment and extend social insurance coverage among the labor force. However, the effects of tax cuts vary across countries, often resulting in large wage shifts but relatively small employment effects. Cutting payroll taxes requires levying other taxes to compensate for lost revenue, which may be difficult in developing economies.
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