Informality and exclusion: evidence from matched employer-employee data for Lebanon and Syria

Table 2 Determinants of informality regressions (probit regressions, marginal effects reported)

	Lebanon		Syria
Dependent variable informal	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)
Female	-0.0123	-0.0162	0.0573	0.0489
	(0.0584)	(0.0610)	(0.0584)	(0.0609)
Years of education	-0.0172***	-0.0201***	-0.00542	-0.00527
	(0.0054)	(0.0060)	(0.00440)	(0.00490)
Age	-0.0545***	-0.0614***	-0.0565***	-0.0562***
	(0.0153)	(0.0161)	(0.0123)	(0.0126)
Age²	0.0006***	0.0007***	0.000640***	0.000634***
	(0.0002)	(0.0002)	(0.000160)	(0.000163)
Firm size <5 (base 10–49)	0.5321***	0.5303***	0.297***	0.308***
	(0.0614)	(0.0653)	(0.0827)	(0.0803)
Firm size 5-9	0.2089**	0.2108**	0.268***	0.279***
	(0.0832)	(0.0853)	(0.0860)	(0.0883)
Firm size >50	-0.1921***	-0.2358***	-0.285***	-0.273***
	(0.0576)	(0.0583)	(0.0730)	(0.0746)
Cognitive score quintile 2		0.1063		0.0408
		(0.0823)		(0.0521)
Cognitive score quintile 3		0.0667		0.00539
		(0.0864)		(0.0515)
Cognitive score quintile 4		0.0051		0.0116
		(0.0863)		(0.0743)
Cognitive score quintile 5		0.1107		0.0258
		(0.0939)		(0.0879)
Open to experience		0.1329**		-0.0129
		(0.0572)		(0.0389)
Conscientious		0.0166		-0.00476
		(0.0583)		(0.0611)
Extrovert		-0.1509***		-0.0360
		(0.0549)		(0.0409)
Agreeable		-0.0268		0.0406
		(0.0584)		(0.0450)
Emotionally stable		-0.0558		-0.0322
		(0.0561)		(0.0464)
Observations	502	490	928	928
Pseudo-R²	0.299	0.326	0.173	0.173

Note: Robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1. All regressions include industry and region dummies. Regions in Lebanon were Beirut, Mount Lebanon, North Lebanon, Bekaa, South Lebanon, and Nabatieh. Regions in Syria were Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Latakia. In Lebanon, the industries include agriculture, construction, education, wholesale, transport, finance, information and communications, and health. In Syria, the industries include services and manufacturing.