This paper aims to develop a model capable of reconciling some of the main institutional aspects relative to labor market informality. It is a two-sector, formal and informal, matching model that incorporates the main tradeoffs faced by workers and firms when deciding in which sector they will operate. The model presents an innovation that makes it more coherent with most stylized facts and recent empirical evidence. Policy simulation's results show that increasing unemployment benefits and reducing payroll taxes generate positive, although small effects over labor market indicators. However, intensifying government audition rates implies a substantial reduction of informality rates, but it also causes unemployment to increase and the deterioration of other important indicators in the Brazilian labor market.
informal sector; institutions; labor market
