Labor Markets

The Center for Latin American Monetary Studies’ (CEMLA) Board of Governors created the Joint Research Program with the dual aim of promoting the exchange of knowledge among researchers from Latin American and Caribbean central banks and of providing insights on topics that are of common interest to the region. Annually, the Central Bank Researchers Network chooses a subject to study among its members. The collection of papers in the Joint Research Program contains research by researchers from CEMLA’s associates and collaborating members. It is published as a working paper series to encourage debate among the central bank and academic community. The views expressed in the Joint Research Program are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of their central banks, CEMLA’s Board of Governors, or CEMLA’s Staff. Previous volumes are available at https://www.cemla.org/jointresearch.html.

Motivated by the structural changes in labor markets, some originated and some others exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, and the close monitoring of its conditions by central banks, the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) organized the CEMLA Workshop on Labor Markets on August 11 and 12, 2022, within the 2022 Joint Research Program. This year’s edition was carried out digitally, had the outstanding support of Academic Advisors, Laura Juárez (Assistant Professor in the Center for Economic Studies (CEE) at El Colegio de México) and Carlos Urrutia (Professor of Economics and Researcher at the Center for Economic Research (CIE) at ITAM), and gathered the authors of five papers on labor markets for the contexts of some Latin American and European countries. The authors are affiliated to the central banks of Bolivia, Costa Rica, Peru, Spain, and Uruguay.         
The papers cover the following topics: i) an analysis of labor market transitions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bolivia; ii) an examination of the COVID-19 shock reallocation effects in Costa Rica with an emphasis on unobserved worker heterogeneity; iii) the characterization of multiple-job workers in Peru and the determinants of its decision to have a second job; iv) the reallocation dynamics across sectors in Spain and Italy—induced by the COVID-19 pandemic; and v) the estimation of the natural rate of unemployment and the construction of a labor-market-conditions indicator for Uruguay.

Labor Market Slack and Monetary Policy in a Developing Country: A gender approach
Elizabeth Bucacos

Labor Market Transitions in Bolivia during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Angélica Calle-Sarmiento

The Multiple Job-holding in Peru
Nikita Céspedes, Nelson R. Ramírez-Rondán, Ana Olivera

Job Displacement Effects and Labor Market Sorting During COVID-19
Jonathan Garita, Guillermo Pastrana, Pablo Slon

Worker Reallocation in Italy and Spain after the COVID-19 Shock
Ángel Luis Gómez, Salvatore Lattanzio