Social security entitlement in Maghreb countries : who is excluded? who is not interested ?

Abstract EN

The issue of whether informal jobs are chosen voluntarily by workers or as a strategy of last resort is controversial.

Many authors recognize that the informal sector is heterogeneous and it is composed of workers who voluntarily choose it and others who are pushed inside because of entry barriers to the formal sector (Günther & Launov, 2012).

Using the SAHWA survey and discrete choice models, this article confirms the heterogeneity of the informal labor market in three Maghreb countries: Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Furthermore, this article highlights the profiles of workers who voluntarily choose informality, which is missing from previous studies.

Finally, this article proposes policy recommendations in order to extend social security to informal workers and to include them in the formal labour market.