Inverted “S”—The complete neoclassical labour‐supply function

Informal employment in developed and developing economies: Perspectives and policy responses

“…In other words, it ignores that ethics and morality also have a role to play. Besides, in developing countries whose labour force is extensively engaged in subsistence-level self-employment, farming and other family-based work, an approach based on such "rational" assumptions would be largely irrelevant (see, for example, Sharif, 2000;Harriss-White, 2003;Sylla, 2013;Taiwo, 2013, in this issue).…”

A Complete Characterization of the Inverted S-Shaped Labor Supply Curve

“…Many empirical studies show, however, that the labor supply of poor workers is downward-sloping not only in less developed countries but also in highly advanced countries such as the USA. Referring to Mishel et al (1997), Sharif (2000) reports evidence of a forward-falling labor supply for the bottom and second quintiles in the income distribution of the USA between 1979 and 1994. A cross-sectional estimate using 2000 Census data by Bendewald (2008) finds an inverted S-shaped labor supply for US households.…”

The transformation of labor supply in the pre-industrial world

“…This is justifiable because we are interested in a representative worker. An s-shaped labor supply function as employed by Sharif (2000) and Dessing (2002) is a plausible specification for workers who face large fixed time costs such as individuals looking after children, but is unlikely to be relevant for the labor force as a whole. Considering more esoteric specifications for labor supply would make the comparative statics intractable.…”