We investigate the characteristics of the owners of small businesses that participate in the informal sector of an emerging economy and their perception of the risk of detection by tax authorities while doing so. Data are gathered from a survey covering 1027 small businesses in Trinidad and Tobago. Results suggest that small-business owners are motivated to participate in the informal sector when they believe that the risk of detection by the tax authorities is low and that government regulations are burdensome, but there is no evidence that the tax rate itself is an issue. Their perception of the risk of detection by the tax authority is determined largely by the time they spend and the income they earn in the formal sector.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes.You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. licence. www.econstor.eu IZA DP No. 3549 The Role of Educational Choice in Occupational Gender Segregation: Evidence from Trinidad and Tobago If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated Sandra Sookram Eric Strobl D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S Section I: IntroductionThe segregation of men and women into different occupations continues to be one of the most enduring aspects of labour markets in both developed and developing countries alike.Importantly such occupational segregation has substantial consequences for gender discrimination since 'female type' jobs are generally characterized by lower pay and worse working conditions. In this paper we explicitly examine the role of educational choices on occupational gender segregation in the context of such a supply-side policy using the case study of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). More specifically, while the T&T Constitution forbids discrimination based on gender, but without defining it 3 , there had been no explicit legislation prohibiting discrimination in employment prior to 2000. Furthermore, from a more general perspective one should note that Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory of the 2000 Dakar Framework for Action and thus has committed itself to attaining certain goals, two of which in particular are the need for equitable access to education for females and the elimination of gender disparities in primary and secondary education. Given that other studies have shown that gender discrimination in the labour market in T&T is considerable 6 , the education policy changes implemented provide a good case study with which to assess whether such policies coincide with changes in occupational segregation.women for work of equal value, but did not introduce any national legislation to ensure the implementation of the guidelines of these. 5 While the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution did forbid discrimination based on gender, it contained no explicit definition. 6 For example, the study on wage discrimination by Olsen and Coppin (2001) showed that in 1993 the ...

Trinidad and Tobago has a non-negligible proportion of its population in poverty. After constructing a household consumption aggregate adjusted for price and household composition differentials, we measured the rate of poverty and examined the determinants of poverty and household welfare on the basis of the Survey of Living Conditions 2005 data set. Relevant econometric techniques were adopted to identify the probability of being poor for all households and household welfare for a sample of only poor households. Our findings indicate that the poverty rate is higher than the existing estimates and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics play significant roles in poverty and household welfare.

Using the case study of Trinidad and Tobago, we investigate the socio-economic, demographic, and attitudinal characteristics of households that participate in the informal sector of an emerging economy and their perception of the risk of detection by tax authorities while doing so. Data are gathered from a cross-sectional field survey covering 570 households. Results using multinomial logit and ordered probit models suggest that households are motivated to participate in the informal sector when members spend little time in formal sector activity, believe that taxes are too high and their incomes are too low, have dependents to support and believe that the resulting tax evasion will go undetected. Their perception of the risk of detection by the tax authority is determined largely by the income they earn in the formal sector and the extent of government bureaucracy prevailing there. JEL CLASSIFICATION NUMBERS: C25, C51, E26.

In this paper, an attempt is made to measure the hidden economy of Trinidad & Tobago over the period 1973-1999, within the Structural Cointegrating VAR (SCVAR) framework. Using a Tanzi-type currency demand approach as a starting point, a multiple equation SCVAR model is estimated that contains two longrun relationships linking the demand for currency with other variables. The model is evaluated on the basis of its persistence profiles, its impulse responses and other statistical criteria. It is solved using a Gauss-Siedel algorithm and is used to establish that the size of the hidden economy rose from a low of about 14% of measured GDP in the early 1970s to a high of 36% in 1981, and is currently about 20% of measured GDP. Hidden economic activity is also found to be highly positively correlated with activity in the regular economy.JEL CLASSIFICATION: C51, C52, E26, E60, O54.