Abstract

LUDMER, Gustavo; SCHTEINGART, Daniel; FAVATA, Federico  and  TROMBETTA, Martín. Work and poverty: the case of sewing workers in Argentina in 2003-2018. Desarro. soc. [online]. 2020, n.84, pp.57-90. ISSN 0120-3584.  https://doi.org/10.13043/dys.84.2.

Precarious work is a general feature of the clothing industry around the world and has an impact on the quality of life for those who work in it. The aim of this work is to analyze the link between working in the sewing industry and poverty for the 2003-2018 period in Argentina. We intend to answer the question ‘does working in the sewing industry raise one’s odds of living in a poor household, conditional on observable attributes of households and individuals?’ Using data from household surveys, we perform a Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition and conclude that: a) sewing workers show significantly higher levels of poverty than the rest of the workers in the economy, b) such differences are partly explained by individual attributes (such as low skills, for instance), and c) they are also explained by the fact that working in the sewing sector raises the odds of being poor, controlling for observable attributes.

JEL classification: J24, J31, J46, J81.

Keywords : Oaxaca-Blinder; labor informality; Argentina.

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