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This article offers an alternative to the traditional dualistic view of the relationship between formal and informal labor markets. For many workers inefficiencies in formal sector protections and low levels of labor productivity may make informal sector employment a desirable alternative to formal sector employment. The analysis offers the first study of worker transitions between sectors using detailed panel data from Mexico and finds little evidence in favor of the dualistic view. Traditional earnings differentials cannot prove or disprove segmentation in the developing-country context. The patterns of worker mobility do not suggest a rigid labor market or one segmented along the formal/informal division.

While understanding interest group systems remains crucial to understanding the functioning of advanced democracies, the study of interest groups remains a somewhat niche field within political science. Nevertheless, during the last 15 years, the academic interest in group politics has grown and we reflect on the state of the current literature. The main objective is to take stock, consider the main empirical and theoretical/ conceptual achievements, but most importantly, to reflect upon potential fertile future research avenues. In our view interest group studies would be reinvigorated and would benefit from being reintegrated within the broader field of political science, and more particularly, the comparative study of government. The study of interest group politics-that is the organisation, aggregation, articulation, and intermediation of societal interests that seek to shape public policies-is a relatively small field within political science. There is no special journal devoted to interest group studies, and mainstream political science journals publish less on interest groups than they do on other areas of political science such as electoral, legislative, and party politics. 1 This phenomenon is not due to interest group scholarship being less advanced or less sophisticated than the other sub-fields. It is largely an artefact of size: fewer scholars work in the group area than in party politics or policy studies. There are also more substantive reasons for the paucity of interest group research: several conceptual, methodological and disciplinary barriers militate against the accumulation of knowledge. Nevertheless, during the last 15 years, the academic interest in group politics has grown. This is evidenced by numerous empirical studiesqualitative and quantitative-within the fields of European Union studies, comparative European politics, and American politics. In recent years, the

This paper examines the place of groups in the consultative process in British policymaking. It stresses the importance of consultation even under the Thatcher government and distinguishes between consultation, bargaining and negotiation. The paper identifies the important divide between the relatively few groups with privileged status and the greater number of groups who find themselves consigned to less influential positions. The discussion revisits the insider/outsider typology often used to differentiate interest group strategies and status in policy development. It suggests that the insider group term is associated with a particular style of policy making, and offers amendments to the existing use of the terms to avoid the difficulties which occur from the conflation of group strategy and group status.

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This paper first provides an overview of the levels of minimum wages in Latin America and their true impact on the distribution of wages using both numerical measures and kernel density plots. It identifies "numeraire" effects higher in the wage distribution and "lighthouse" or reference effects in the unregulated or "informal" sector. The final section then employs panel employment data from Colombia, a country where minimum wages seem high and very binding, to quantify the effects of an increase on wages and employment. The evidence suggests that in the Latin American context, the minimum wage has impacts beyond those usually contemplated in the advanced country literature.

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