The effects of being out of the labor market on subsequent wages : evidence for Uruguay

Abstract

Based on administrative data combining workers\2019 earnings histories and unemployment insurance benefits, we document short and long term wage losses for a large sample of Uruguayan formal workers with high tenure. We are able to study how wage losses vary across age groups, gender, industry and size of the firm. We also assess differences between switchers and non switchers, and consider the effect of the economic cycle. Our data allows providing original evidence about the smoothing role of the unemployment insurance program, even in a developing country. Our main findings indicate that workers loose around 48% of their pre-displacement wages in the first quarter after displacement, and after five years, losses are still 3%.