Nº 137 (October, 2012). Pablo Gluzmann, David Jaume & Leonardo Gasparini. 

The countries of Latin American have experienced strong transformations in their labor markets, which have had consequences in social and productive terms. Analyzing the labor market, and in particular the labor decisions, is important for a better understanding of the changes in poverty, inequality, productivity and growth in the region. This work, using microdata from household and labor surveys of all the Latin American countries, contributes to that goal, characterizing the occupational status and documenting differences among countries of the region and its evolution over time. In particular, the work focuses on the labor condition of the employer or entrepreneur, with the aim of contributing to understand the decisions towards the entrepreneurial activity in the region. Any entrepreneur action is originated by an occupational choice affected by the market conditions and the idiosyncratic characteristics (observable or not) of the individual. As a result, understanding entrepreneurship requires the characterization of the occupational status across multiple dimensions. This paper offers this broad characterization in various Latin America countries, in order to enlight on some properties of the occupational decision.