A Cohort Analysis of Labor Participation in Mexico, 1987-2009

This paper presents a cohort analysis of the participation in the labor force and in the formal and informal sectors of the economy. The participation rates are decomposed in age, cohort, and time effects. The life-cycle patterns in labor force participation and employment in the formal sector follow a standard inverted U-shape profile, although there are significant diferences in these profiles between men and women, and between women of diferent generations. Younger workers are more likely to participate in the informal salaried sector, while participation in informal self-employment monotonically increases with age. However, this pattern is changing for younger cohorts and participation in the informal salaried sector rises again for older workers. The cohort efects show a higher participation in the informal salaried sector among younger generations. Finally, the cyclical components indicate that the female labor force participation rate is countercyclical, as well as the employment rates in self-employment, and the ones at the informal salaried sector.