IZA/World Bank Workshop: Institutions and Informal Employment in Emerging and Transition Economies

Thursday, June 09:

09:00	-	09:15		Opening of the Workshop by Klaus F. Zimmermann (Director of IZA) and the Organizers
				Session A: Informal Employment in Russia
				Chair: Jan Rutkowski (World Bank)
09:15	-	10:15		Fabian Slonimczyk (Higher School of Economics, Moscow)
				"The Effect of Taxation on Informal Employment: Evidence from the Russian Flat Tax Reform"
				Discussant: Alexander Muravyev (IZA)
10:15	-	11:15		Anzelika Zaiceva (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Hartmut Lehmann (University of Bologna and IZA), Tiziano Razzolini (University of Siena)
				"Job Separations and Informal Employment"
				Discussant: Alexander Muravyev (IZA)
11:15	-	11:30		Coffee Break
				Session B: Informal Workers and the Persistence of Informal Employment
				Chair: Johannes Koettl (World Bank)
11:30	-	12:30		Mihails Hazans (University of Latvia)
				"Informal Workers across Europe: Evidence from 30 European Countries"
				Discussant: Indhira Santos (World Bank)
12:30	-	13:30		Melanie Khamis (IZA), Alpaslan Akay (IZA)
				"The Persistence of Informality: Evidence from Panel Data"
				Discussant: Konstantinos Tatsiramos (IZA)
13:30	-	14:30		Lunch
				Session C: Policy Corner - Reporting on World Bank Research on Informality
				Chair: Werner Eichhorst (IZA)
14:30	-	15:30		Jan Rutkowski (World Bank)
				"Promoting Formal Employment in Kazakhstan"
15:30	-	16:30		Jesko Hentschel (World Bank), Johannes Koettl (World Bank and IZA)
				"In from the Shadow: Informal Employment in the New Member States"
16:30	-	17:00		Coffee Break
17:00	-	19:15		Informal Meetings of Participants involved in Joint Research Projects
19:30				Dinner at Restaurant "Im Stiefel", Bonn

Friday, June 10:

				Session D: Modeling Informality in a Development Context
				Chair: Anzelika Zaiceva (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
09:00	-	10:00		John Bennett (Brunel University), Matthew Rablen (Brunel University)
				"Self-Employment, Wage Employment and Informality in a Developing Economy"
				Discussant: Nancy H. Chau (Cornell University)
10:00	-	11:00		Franck Malherbet (University of Rouen), Charlot Olivier (THEMA - Université de Cergy-Pontoise and CIRPEE), Terra Cristina (THEMA - Université de Cergy-Pontoise, Fundaçao Getulio Vargas and CEPII)
				"Product Market Regulation, Firm Size, Unemployment and Informality in Developing Economies"
				Discussant: John Bennett (Brunel University)
11:00	-	11:15		Coffee Break
				Session E: Informal Pay
				Chair: Alexander Muravyev (IZA)
11:15	-	12:15		Peter Elek (Eötvös Lorand University), Janos Kollo (Institute of Economics, Budapest and IZA), Balazs Reizer (Central European University), Peter A. Szabo (Reformed Presbyterian Church of Central and Eastern Europe)
				"An Attempt to Identify Grey Employment - Estimation of Wage Under-reporting and Tests of the Predictions"
				Discussant: Tiziano Razzolini (University of Siena)
12:15	-	13:15		Klara Sabirianova Peter (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Tetyana Zelenka (Georgia State University)
				"The Price of the Hippocratic Oath: Determinants of Bribery in Russian Health Care"
				Discussant: János Köllő (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
13:15	-	14:00		Lunch
14:00	-	15:00		Invited Lecture Chair: Hartmut Lehmann (University of Bologna and IZA)
				Friedrich Schneider (University of Linz)
				"The Shadow Economy and Shadow Economy Labor Force: What do we (not) know?"
				Session F: Factors Driving Informal Employment and Informality in Brazil
				Chair: John Bennett (Brunel University)
15:00	-	16:00		Erik Jonasson (Lund University)
				"Government Effectiveness and Regional Variation in Informal Employment"
				Discussant: Martin Guzi (IZA)
16:00	-	17:00		Tommaso Gabrieli (University of Reading), Antonio F. Galvao Jr. (University of Iwoa), Gabriel V. Montes-Rojas (City University London)
				"Who benefits from Reducing the Cost of Formality? Quantile Regression Discontinuity Analysis"
				Discussant: Tiziano Razzolini (University of Siena)
20:00				Dinner at Restaurant "Strandhaus", Bonn

Saturday, June 11:

				Session G: Informal and Formal Firms
				Chair: Klara Sabirianova Peter (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
09:00	-	10:00		Janneke Pieters (University of Groningen), Ana I. Moreno-Monroy (University of Groningen), Abdul A. Erumban (University of Groningen)
				"Formal-informal Production Linkages and Informal Sector Heterogeneity: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing"
				Discussant: Fabian Slonimczyk (Higher School of Economics, Moscow)
10:00	-	11:00		Arnab K. Basu (College of William and Mary), Nancy H. Chau (Cornell University), Ravi Kanbur (Cornell University)
				"Contractual Dualism, Market Power and Informality"
				Discussant: Melanie Khamis (IZA)
11:00	-	11:15		Coffee Break
				Session H: Institutions and Informal Employment in Europe
				Chair: Friedrich Schneider (University of Linz)
11:15	-	12:15		Johannes Koettl (World Bank), Michael Weber (World Bank)
				"Does Formal Work Pay? The role of labor taxation and social benefit design in providing disincentives for formal work"
				Discussant: Hartmut Lehmann (University of Bologna)
12:15	-	13:15		Niels-Hugo Blunch (Washington and Lee University)
				"The Financial Crisis and the Formal-Informal Sector Earnings Gap: Evidence from Serbia Using Four Alternative Measures of Informality"
				Discussant: Johannes Koettl (World Bank)
13:15				Lunch