Séminaire de Mehdi BARTAL

Séminaire de Mehdi BARTAL

Le 28 avril 2026

Le prochain séminaire du GAINS aura lieu le 28 avril 2026 de 10h30 à 12h00 en salle T204. Mehdi Bartal (Mohammed VI Polytechnic University) présentera « Informality and Demand ».

Abstract:  Why does informality decline as economies develop? This paper studies the role of consumer demand in driving formalization. Using detailed Brazilian micro-data, we document that higher-income households devote a larger share of their spending to goods and services whose production is more intensive in formal labor. Over time, as income rises, these formal-intensive luxuries account for an increasing share of aggregate expenditure, while informal-intensive necessities contract. To quantify this channel, we develop a two-sector heterogeneous-agent growth model featuring non-homothetic preferences and formal and informal labor. Calibrated to Brazil, the model replicates the observed relationship between income, consumption composition, and informality. Our counterfactual simulations suggest that demand shifts account for a significant share of the decline in Brazilian informality over the last two decades.

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https://univ-lemans-fr.zoom.us/j/99071338273?pwd=2obZit9tNq65IcGJgXbG5yXB693WUR.1

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