Informality and minimum wages by cohort in Colombia

This article aims to analyze the effect of minimum wage levels on the decision to join the informal job sector. We estimated a pseudo panel model of engagement in the informal sector using an IV-probit. Our results show that an increased wage gap-the relative difference between observed and minimum wage-has not only a disincentive effect on the probability of joining informality, but also leads to a substitution effect between younger and older cohorts.