Segmentation and mobility of women in Argentine labor markets

Abstract

This paper examines women‟s labor mobility in Argentina in 1995-2003 across 4 sectors: formal, informal, unemployment, and inactivity. We incorporate alternative measures of labor mobility, and estimate a multinomial logit model of sector choice. The results support the hypothesis of segmented labor markets. Highly educated women, even those married with children, more easily access the formal sector than less educated women. Non-mothers experience fewer barriers to movement from informal to formal. Having more children raises the probability that women will transition from the formal to the informal sector and from the informal sector to exiting the labor market.