Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 24, 2026
11:01
Moderate Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Quantification of Social Behavior in Adult Rats
Published on: December 14, 2014
10.2K
Is Local Social Development Associated with Workforce Composition? A Municipal Analysis of Mexico, 1990-2015
1Department of Sociology University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Population Research and Policy Review
|May 21, 2019
Summary
Local development reduces subsistence farming and boosts formal employment and entrepreneurship. Gains are greatest in communities with mid-to-high social development levels, shifting labor from agriculture to formal sectors.
Area of Science:
- Socioeconomics
- Development Studies
- Labor Economics
Background:
- Subsistence farming and informal employment are prevalent in low-to-middle-income countries.
- Regional disparities in development within countries impact labor market patterns.
- Local-level social development's effect on workforce composition is understudied.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between local social development and municipal workforce composition in Mexico.
- To analyze how multi-dimensional social development influences agricultural and non-agricultural labor, including formal and informal sectors.
- To identify the development thresholds associated with shifts in employment and entrepreneurship.
Main Methods:
- Utilized pooled cross-section data from the Mexican Census (1990-2015).
- Employed fixed effects regression models to analyze municipal workforce changes.
- Measured social development using education, housing, utilities, and poverty indicators.
Main Results:
- Local development significantly decreased agricultural own-account work.
- Non-agricultural wage labor and employer self-employment increased with development.
- Informal sector initially grew in less developed areas, while formal sector and selective entrepreneurship increased in more developed areas.
Conclusions:
- Community-level social development can reduce subsistence work and foster formal employment and entrepreneurship.
- Investments in social development are most effective in communities with existing mid-to-high development levels.
- Targeted development strategies are crucial for maximizing labor market transitions.
Related Concept Videos
00:52Social Proof
31.5K
Social proof is a form of persuasion based on comparison and conformity. People compare their behavior and actions to what others are doing and will change to conform to do what their peers do.
31.5K
02:10Social Scripts
10.3K
People tend to know what behavior is expected of them in specific, familiar settings. A script is a person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting (Schank & Abelson, 1977). Essentially, scripts are a particular kind of schema, one containing default values for the features within an event. In the restaurant example, the script's features include the props (e.g., tables, menu, food, and money), the roles to be played (e.g., customer and waiter),...
10.3K
01:41Social Traps
26.3K
Social traps are negative situations where people get caught in a direction or relationship that later proves to be unpleasant, with no easy way to back out of or avoid. The concept was orignally introduced by John Platt who applied psychology to Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons", where in New England herd owners could let their cattle graze in the common ground. This situation seems like a good idea, but an individual could have an advantage. If they owned...
26.3K
02:06Social Exchange Theory
39.5K
We have discussed why we form relationships, what attracts us to others, and different types of love. But what determines whether we are satisfied with and stay in a relationship? One theory that provides an explanation is social exchange theory. According to social exchange theory, we act as naïve economists in keeping a tally of the ratio of costs and benefits of forming and maintaining a relationship with others (Rusbult & Van Lange, 2003).
39.5K
01:04Social Facilitation
36.1K
Not all intergroup interactions lead to negative outcomes. Sometimes, being in a group situation can improve performance. Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. This typically occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled.
36.1K
01:37Social Loafing
39.0K
Another way in which a group presence can affect performance is social loafing—the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. Social loafing occurs when our individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. Thus, group performance declines on easy tasks (Karau & Williams, 1993). Essentially individual group members loaf and let other group members pick up the slack. Because each individual’s efforts cannot be evaluated,...
39.0K