Economic-demographic Determinants of Labour Supply in Latin America: Some Preliminary Findings

Abstract

Studies on labour supply in Latin America have almost all been fundamentally demographic in their approach. Their primary purpose has been to determine the size of the labour force, based on changes in the working age population, by age and sex groups and on patterns of the specific participation rates of these groups. See, for example, Elizaga (1971) and Durand (1975). Little attention has been given to such other aspects of supply as the number of hours worked per week and the number of weeks worked per year; and the situations of unemployment and underemployment have been similarly disregarded. These studies have been mainly descriptive.²

This paper presents some preliminary findings of a study co-ordinated by the author under the Programme of Joint Studies on Latin American Economic Integration (ECIEL). The project covers seven countries and is financed by the Rockefeller Foundation and AID. Participating in the project are the following institutes: FIEL in Argentina; IISEC, Catholic University in Bolivia; FIPE, University of Sao Paulo in Brazil; CCRP in Colombia; CPES in Paraguay; CISEPA, Catholic University in Peru; and CIESU in Uruguay. The author acknowledges the basic work carried out by Juan Luis Bour of FIEL, Rolando Terrazas of IISEC, José Paulo Chahad of FIPE, Marta Isabel de Gómez and Clara Ramirez of CCRP, as well as the collaboration of Rosa Maria de Carvalho of ECIEL. Translated from Spanish.