Read more
During much of the twentieth century, informal employment and entrepreneurship was commonly depicted as a residue from a previous era. Its continuing presence was seen to be a sign of "backwardness" whilst the formal economy represented "progress". In recent decades, however, numerous studies have revealed not only that informal employment is extensive and persistent but also that it is growing relative to formal employment in many populations. Whilst in the developing world, the informal economy is often found to be the mainstream economy, nevertheless, in the developed world too, informality is currently still estimated to account for notable per cent of GDP.
The Informal Economy: Exploring Drivers and Practices intends to engage with these issues, providing a much-need 'contextualised' approach to explain the persistence and growth of forms of informal economic practices and entrepreneurial activities in the twenty-first century. Using a diverse range of empirical case studies from Europe, Africa, North Africa and Asia, this book unpacks the different varieties of forms of informal work and entrepreneurship and provides a critical analysis of existing theorisations used to explain such phenomena.
This book's aim is to examine the nature and persistence of informal work and entrepreneurship, across a variety of empirical settings, from within the developed world, the developing world and within transformation economies within post-socialist spaces.
Given its worldwide, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach and recent interest in the informal economies by a number of disciplines and organisations, this book will be of vital reading to those operating in the fields of: Economics, political economy and management, Human and economic geography and Economic anthropology and sociology as well as development studies
List of contents
Part 1: The Drivers of the Informal Economy
1. Tax Morale and Informality in Post-Socialist Contexts
Diana Traikova
2. The Many Shades of the Grey Economy in Romania
Rodica Ianole-Calin, Calin Vâlsan, Elena Druica
3. Evaluating the Perceptions and Realities of Envelope Wage Arrangements Among Students in Moldova and Romania
Ioana A. Horodnic, Colin C. Williams
4.Book-Launching Informalities on the Right Side of a Nineteenth-Century Walnut Table
Marcello Mollica
5. Assessing the Frequency of Informal Payments for Health Services in Lithuania
Adrian V. Horodnic, Claudia I. Ciobanu, Colin C. Williams, Peter Rodgers
6. Labour Market Institutions and Undeclared Work: A Multilevel Analysis of Central and Eastern European Countries
Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu
Part 2: The Nature/Character of the Informal Economy
7. The Role of Informal Work in the Livelihood Strategies of U.S. Households
Emily J. Wornell, Leif Jensen, Ann Tickamyer
8. From Goods to Emotions: The Transformation of Informal Practices in the Republic of Georgia
Costanza Curro
9. Looking for Freedom in Grey Areas: Approaches to Informality as a Space For Negotiating Goals of Neoliberalism in Developing the Cooperation Sector
Liga Rudzite
10. Gifting Practices in Informal Trade in Response to Elites' Rules and State Regulations on the Myanmar-Thailand Border
Busarin Lertchavalitsakul
11. Bazaar and Local Governance: The Case of Legalizing Informal Economic Practices in the Batkhela bazaar, Pakistan
Muhammad Salman Khan
12. Intrapreneurship and Capital Accumu
Summary
This book’s aim is to examine the nature and persistence of informal work and entrepreneurship, across a variety of empirical settings, from within the developed world, the developing world and within transformation economies within post-socialist spaces.
