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1 – 10 of over 34000Sinhle Thwala, Tyanai Masiya and Stellah N. Lubinga
This study aims to investigates the contribution of the informal sector towards secure livelihoods. Using a case study design, the study focusses on Mandela park, situated in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigates the contribution of the informal sector towards secure livelihoods. Using a case study design, the study focusses on Mandela park, situated in Khayelitsha Township, Cape Town, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Khayelitsha is predominantly an old township established by the apartheid government using unjust segregation laws to foster spatial planning that isolated people of colour in areas with insufficient infrastructure and informal economic activities. Therefore, informal trading became a survival strategy in Khayelitsha, attracting an increasing number of informal traders in public spaces within the township in pursuit of livelihoods. Informal activities are generally conducted to generate income and secure sustainable livelihoods.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative research design, incorporating structured interviews instrumental in data collection and in-depth thematic analysis.
Findings
The study findings reveal that the informal sector positively contributes to the sustainable livelihoods of those involved in the informal sector and the relatives of those through income generation, family support, wealth creation, source of employment, business incubation and innovation and creativity.
Originality/value
The study concludes that given the increasing unemployment rate in South Africa, caused by the stagnant economic growth rate, policymakers should rethink their policies on the informal economy, acknowledge the sector's relevance and support the sector.
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Colin C. Williams, Ioana Alexandra Horodnic and Jan Windebank
To transcend the current debates about whether participation in the informal sector is a result of informal workers “exclusion” or their voluntary “exit” from the formal sector…
Abstract
Purpose
To transcend the current debates about whether participation in the informal sector is a result of informal workers “exclusion” or their voluntary “exit” from the formal sector, the purpose of this paper is to propose and evaluate the existence of a dual informal labour market composed of an exit-driven “upper tier” and exclusion-driven “lower-tier” of informal workers.
Design/methodology/approach
To do this, data from a 2013 Eurobarometer survey involving 27,563 face-to-face interviews across the European Union is reported.
Findings
The finding is that in the European Union, there is a dual informal labour market with those participating in the informal sector due to their exclusion from the formal sector being half the number of those doing so to voluntarily exit the formal sector. Using a logistic regression analysis, the exclusion-driven “lower tier” is identified as significantly more likely to be populated by the unemployed and those living in East-Central Europe and the exit-driven “upper tier” by those with few financial difficulties and living in Nordic nations.
Research limitations/implications
The results reveal the need not only to transcend either/or debates about whether participants in the informal sector are universally exclusion-or exit-driven, and to adopt a both/and approach that recognises a dual informal labour market composed of an exit-driven upper tier and exclusion-driven lower tier, but also for wider research on the relative sizes of these two tiers in individual countries and other global regions, along with which groups populate these tiers.
Originality/value
This is the first evaluation of the internal dualism of the informal sector in the European Union.
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This study aims to investigate the factors that affect the likelihood of formalizing informal sector activities in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, using World Bank enterprise…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the factors that affect the likelihood of formalizing informal sector activities in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, using World Bank enterprise survey data collected between the periods 2009 and 2018. Notwithstanding the great contribution of the informal economy in Africa, developing countries may stand to gain more if they make inroads in formalizing the informal sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Since the dependent variable is binary taking the value of one if the firm is willing to formalize and zero otherwise, the study will employ a discrete choice probit model.
Findings
Results inter alia show that firms that are more likely to formalize are young, owned by individuals with high levels of education and, have registered before. Governments should therefore target firms that are young and provide them with information about the benefits of registration, and if these firms are owned by experienced and educated individuals, the likelihood for them to register would be high.
Research limitations/implications
The study uses cross sectional data and therefore cannot capture time variant factors affecting the probability to register and also cannot correct effectively for endogeneity.
Practical implications
Governments should therefore target firms that are young and provide them with as much information as possible about the benefits of registration, and if these firms are owned by experienced and educated individuals, the likelihood to convince them to register would be high. They should also reduce the cost of registration so as to improve net benefits in line with the rational exit view.
Social implications
Formalizing informal activities will help improve the performance of these firms, reduce vulnerable employment as well as crime, poverty and inequality. Providing decent operating and working conditions to informal players will reduce social and political unrest.
Originality/value
The African continent is home to many informal firms accounting for roughly 55% of economic activity with 90% of workers eking out a living in a sector that does not respect worker rights, provide decent working conditions and where changes in growth have done little to reduce its size. Regulatory reforms have also been implemented resulting in the number of start-up registration procedures falling from 11 in 2003 to seven in 2019. The uniqueness of Sub Saharan Africa in terms of entrepreneurial culture, political, institutional and economic conditions as well as lack of consensus in the extant empirical literature make this study pertinent.
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Enterprises in developed and developing world environments often begin life in the informal sector operating outside the purview of government oversight. Sectoral firm change…
Abstract
Purpose
Enterprises in developed and developing world environments often begin life in the informal sector operating outside the purview of government oversight. Sectoral firm change, however, from the informal to the formal sector is not well studied. The purpose of this paper is to answer the following research question: “What firm-level markers help explain the movement of firms from the informal to the formal sector?”
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 719 urban formal enterprises included in the 2016 El Salvador Enterprise Survey undertaken by the World Bank forms the basis of the empirical analyses. The survey questionnaire comprehensively encompasses business practices and performance and the overall business environment.
Findings
Multivariate results reveal location, firm maturity, problems with land acquisition, a line of credit or active business loan, extortion by street gangs and practices of informal competitors increase the odds of informal firms becoming formal enterprises. Lessening the odds of once informal firms moving to the formal sector include the lack of access to public utilities, visitation by tax officials, formation as a corporation, bank accounts, number of employees and time spent focused upon government regulations.
Originality/value
Contextualized within the national setting of El Salvador, the integration of informal enterprises into the formal economy and related public policy implications of informal firm regularization are discussed.
Propósito
Las empresas de países desarrollados y en desarrollo a menudo comienzan su vida en el sector informal y que opera fuera del ámbito de la supervisión gubernamental. Sin embargo, el cambio de empresas sectoriales, desde el sector informal al formal, no está bien estudiado. Este artículo busca responder la siguiente pregunta de investigación: “¿Qué marcadores de nivel de empresa ayudan a explicar el movimiento de las empresas del sector informal al formal?”
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Los datos de 719 empresas formales urbanas incluidas en la encuesta de empresas de El Salvador de 2016 realizada por el Banco Mundial constituyen la base de los análisis empíricos. El cuestionario de la encuesta abarca de manera integral las prácticas y el rendimiento empresarial y el entorno empresarial general.
Hallazgos
Los resultados multivariables revelan la ubicación, la madurez de la empresa, los problemas con la adquisición de tierras, una línea de crédito o un préstamo comercial activo, la extorsión por parte de pandillas callejeras y las prácticas de competidores informales aumentan las probabilidades de que las empresas informales se conviertan en empresas formales. Disminuir las probabilidades de que una vez las firmas informales se muden al sector formal incluyen la falta de acceso a los servicios públicos, las visitas de los funcionarios tributarios, la formación como corporación, las cuentas bancarias, el número de empleados y el tiempo dedicado a las regulaciones gubernamentales.
Originalidad/valor
En el contexto nacional de El Salvador, se analiza la integración de empresas informales en la economía formal y se discuten las implicaciones de las políticas públicas relacionadas con la regularización de empresas informales.
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Harshana Kasseeah and Verena Tandrayen-Ragoobur
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the characteristics of women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector in Mauritius and to investigate the impact of women…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the characteristics of women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector in Mauritius and to investigate the impact of women entrepreneurship on their own livelihoods and that of their families.
Design/methodology/approach
Using survey data on 158 women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector, the authors analyse whether there has been an improvement in the standard of living of women entrepreneurs as a result of their informal entrepreneurial activities.
Findings
Findings reveal that the informal sector has provided a self-employment outlet for unemployed and retrenched women in Mauritius. Even if for a majority, their earnings remain low, their informal activity has indeed helped to contribute to their livelihood and household earnings.
Research limitations/implications
Research on informal sector businesses is fraught with limitations, given that these firms operate on the fringes of legality and data are thus a major issue. Hence interviewing owners of informal sector businesses to get relevant data is quite challenging.
Practical implications
The results indicate that informal entrepreneurial activities contribute positively to women's livelihoods, hence policy should be aimed at encouraging women agency even if it is in the informal sector.
Social implications
The study helps to shed light as to whether entrepreneurship even if it exists in the informal sector helps to improve the living of these women and their families.
Originality/value
This study is innovative as it investigates the livelihood of a vulnerable section of the population, in this case, women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector. The authors find that the informal sector provides women with higher income when they are married and are more formally educated.
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H. Zia, V. Devadas and S. Shukla
The purpose of this paper is to outline the socio‐economic and environmental implications of the informal sector engaged in waste recycling in the city of Kanpur, with special…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline the socio‐economic and environmental implications of the informal sector engaged in waste recycling in the city of Kanpur, with special emphasis on the lives of lowest group of people, i.e. waste‐pickers, and to discuss various possible scenarios to integrate them with the formal sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The study involved field survey of secondary material markets, followed by the administration of questionnaires to 40 respondents belonging to various segments of the informal sector. The questionnaires were designed to elicit information on the socio‐economic characteristics of the respondents. The study was conducted in 2004.
Findings
The study has attempted to delve into the socio‐economic conditions of the waste and dump‐pickers, the lowest segment of the informal recycling sector. The study of the status of existing alliances of formal‐informal sector and the community shows that there is a lot of scope for improvement in the management of solid waste and the condition of the informal waste‐recycling sector. Stronger alliances have the potential to improve the services as well as the socio‐economic condition of the informal waste‐recycling sector.
Research limitations/implications
A very small sample size was selected for this study in the absence of any prior database pertaining to the size, socio‐economic conditions of the informal waste‐recycling sector.
Originality/value
The paper attempts to understand the important role played by the informal sector engaged in waste recycling. This work is original, as no such analysis has been carried out in the study area. This study could be further extended.
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This paper aims to address the issue of unionisation of the largely non‐unionised informal economic activities as a strategy for achieving decent work and pay as well as promoting…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the issue of unionisation of the largely non‐unionised informal economic activities as a strategy for achieving decent work and pay as well as promoting national development in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
The adopted methods include review of archival information and survey of the perspectives of the stakeholders in Nigeria's industrial relations system. To facilitate the realisation of expected developmental objectives, monitoring, evaluation, capacity building, organising and advocacy roles are recommended jointly and severally for the stakeholders.
Findings
It was found that decent work and pay, which would assist poverty minimisation and thus national development, would be furthered by unionisation of the informal sector. At the same time, there are many barriers faced by unions in seeking to organise in the latter area.
Research limitations/implications
The research focuses only on aspects of informal working; the informal economy represents a multi‐facetted and spatially diverse phenomenon.
Originality/value
This paper provides a detailed review of employment relations in non‐standard work in Africa, an area much neglected in the literature.
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Priyaranjan Jha and Rana Hasan
The purpose of this paper is to understand labor market regulations and their consequences for the allocation of resources.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand labor market regulations and their consequences for the allocation of resources.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper constructs a theoretical model to study labor market regulations in developing countries and how it affects the allocation of resources between the less productive informal activities and more productive formal activities. It also provides empirical support for some theoretical results using cross-country data.
Findings
When workers are risk-averse and the market for insurance against labor income risk is missing, regulations that provide insurance to workers (such as severance payments) reduce misallocation. However, regulations that simply create barriers to the dismissal of workers increase misallocation and end up reducing the welfare of workers. This study also provides some empirical evidence broadly consistent with the theoretical results using cross-country data. While dismissal regulations increase the share of informal employment, severance payments to workers do not.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical exercise is constrained by the lack of availability of good data on the informal sector.
Originality/value
The analysis of the alternative labor market regulations analyzed in this paper in the presence of risk-averse workers is an original contribution to the literature.
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This paper aims to theoretically find out whether investments could close the formal-informal wage gap in India.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to theoretically find out whether investments could close the formal-informal wage gap in India.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper builds a general equilibrium model of a developing economy with a large informal sector and a capital-intensive formal sector with sector-specific capital and incorporates endogenous demand.
Findings
With homothetic preferences, a small initial wage premium and elastic relative demand, investment in the formal sector is likely to close the wage gap, but the gap persists with non-homothetic preferences. However, investment in the informal sector is unlikely to close the wage gap with either type of preferences.
Originality/value
Though labour market distortions in developing economies leading to a formal-informal wage gap are well-documented in the development literature, little attention has been given to the question of whether such a gap would close over time.
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The paper aims to examine the coexistence of formal and informal resource sectors in resource-dependent economies, whose production depends on an exhaustible (e.g. minerals) and a…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to examine the coexistence of formal and informal resource sectors in resource-dependent economies, whose production depends on an exhaustible (e.g. minerals) and a renewable resource stock (e.g. forest), respectively. It then examines the implications of declining mineral stocks on public revenues, labour movements between sectors, and economic growth in an attempt to elucidate the poor economic performance of many mineral-dependent countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a theoretical model that describes the coexistence of a formal and informal resource-dependent sector, where individuals can direct their work effort. It then assesses how declining mineral stocks influence labour mobility across sectors and environmental degradation.
Findings
Decreasing mineral stocks induce a relocation of labour towards informal production and deprive local authorities from public revenues collected within the formal economy. This constrains the ability to improve infrastructure and welfare over time and simultaneously imposes pressure on the local environment.
Originality/value
The paper provides a novel theoretical mechanism that attempts to elucidate the “resource curse”, i.e. the poor economic performance of many mineral-rich economies. It purposely explores the implications of a coexistence of formal and informal resource activities on economic development for resource-dependent economies, in order to obtain new insights into this direction.
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