Enforcement of Labour Regulation and the Labour Market Effects of Trade: Evidence from Brazil
利用巴西单边贸易自由化带来的地方经济冲击和各地执法力度的差异，发现执法更严的地区非正规就业更低、总体就业损失更大、正规企业数量减少更多，而执法较弱的地区则相反，这些效应集中在低技能工人身上。
Abstract How does enforcement of labour regulations shape the labour market effects of trade? We combine local economic shocks generated by the unilateral trade liberalisation in Brazil and enforcement variation across regions to show that regions with stricter enforcement observed: (i) lower informality; (ii) larger losses in overall employment; (iii) greater reductions in the number of formal plants. Regions with weaker enforcement experienced opposite effects. All these effects are concentrated on low-skill workers. Our results indicate that greater flexibility introduced by informality allows both formal firms and low-skill workers to cope better with adverse labour market shocks.