The first four Brown Bag Seminars of TREES and El COLMEX

TREES, of the Universidad de los Andes, and the Program for the Economic Analysis of Mexico (PRAEM), of El Colegio de México, finance research at each of the universities to which they belong. This research is aimed at studying the causes and consequences of inequalities in Latin America. In order to promote the discussion of questions and share research advances, both initiatives organized four virtual Brown Bag Seminars that promote interaction between researchers from both institutions and countries. 

The first meeting, on Friday, August 25, was led by Juan Camilo Cárdenas and César Mantilla. During this conversation, entitled “Informalities in the Global South: Towards a Research Agenda,” Cárdenas and Mantilla explored formality and informality within a range of labor relations. They also identified the costs and benefits of having formal and informal labor relations and outlined the methodological challenges of their research.  

Access the complete seminar: Informalities of the global south: towards a research agenda. 

The second seminar, on Friday, September 29, was entitled: “The Impact of Transportation Platforms on the Labor Market: Evidence for Mexico”. Laura Juarez, PRAEM coordinator, spoke about her research exploring the rise of digital transportation platform labor in Latin America. Juarez considers it relevant to understand the benefits it can bring to workers, such as flexibility, along with the possible consequences, such as variable income or lack of social benefits. For this, he presented evidence from his ongoing research on the gradual entry of Uber in Mexican cities and its impact on people's labor variables.  

For the third meeting, on Friday, October 27, Raymundo Campos and Aurora Ramírez, researchers from the Center for Economic Studies at El Colegio de México, led the session entitled: “Redistribution: how do we understand inequality for a new social pact?”.  

If you are interested in the research being conducted by TREES and PRAEM and would like to participate in the Brown Bag Seminars next semester, 2024-I, subscribe to the TREES newsletter to receive invitations to these spaces.