Earnings, Occupational Choice, and Mobility in Segmented Labor Markets of India.

摘要

The paper, using labor market survey data from Bombay, attempts to identify factors that determine men's and women's earnings, occupational choices, and mobility in segmented labor markets of India. The paper develops a model that considers three categories of labor-protected wage, unprotected wage, and self-employment-representing three different forms of labor market segmentation according to the type of labor contract and job vulnerability. The results indicate the presence of labor market segmentation; however, human capital variables such as education and training have important influence on both sectoral job allocation and worker's income and occupational mobility. Thus, policies directed to raise the productive capacity and employment levels of the poor may help alleviate poverty. The labor market outcomes, however, vary by gender. Women are less paid, less mobile, and more occupied in the unprotected wage sector than men. Men have higher education and so can more easily move to the protected wage employment or better remunerated self-employment than women endowed with lower levels of education. Men have better access to credit than women; thus, self-employed women are more constrained by lack of capital than self-employed men in raising their productivity. (Copyright (c) 1992 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.)