The Informal Labour Market in India: Transitory or Permanent Employment for Migrants?

38 Pages Posted: 14 Sep 2013

See all articles by P. N. Raja Junankar

P. N. Raja Junankar

Western Sydney University - Department of Economics & Finance; University of New South Wales (UNSW) - Industrial Relations Centre; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abu Shonchoy

Florida International University (FIU) - Department of Economics

Abstract

This paper studies the characteristics of the workers in the informal economy and whether migrants treat this sector as a temporary location before moving on to the organised or formal sector to improve their life time income and life style. We limit our study to the Indian urban (non-Agricultural) sector and study the characteristics of the household heads that belong to the Informal Sector (Self Employed and Informal Wage Workers) and the Formal Sector. We find that household heads that are less educated, come from the poorer households, lower social groups (castes and religions) are more likely to be in the informal sector. We distinguish between migrants who come from rural areas and urban areas to their present urban location. We find that the longer duration of a rural migrant in the urban area, the lower the probability that the household head would be in the informal wage labour sector.

Keywords: informal labour markets, migrant, caste, religion

JEL Classification: O17, J15, J61, J42

Suggested Citation

Junankar, P. N. Raja and Shonchoy, Abu, The Informal Labour Market in India: Transitory or Permanent Employment for Migrants?. IZA Discussion Paper No. 7587, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2325845 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2325845

P. N. Raja Junankar (Contact Author)

Western Sydney University - Department of Economics & Finance ( email )

Sydney, NSW 1797
Australia

University of New South Wales (UNSW) - Industrial Relations Centre

Kensington
High St
Sydney, NSW 2052
Australia

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Abu Shonchoy

Florida International University (FIU) - Department of Economics ( email )

11200 SW 8th Street
Miami, FL 3199
United States

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