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This paper tests if there exists a subjective well-being gap between informal workers in the informal and formal sectors in urban China, and explores the mechanisms behind such differences.

The author develops a simple theoretical model to analyze the effects of the employment sector and work time flexibility on workers' happiness and conducts a descriptive study to examine the relationship between employment type and subjective well-being using the China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2017 datasets, a nationally representative sample.

The results show that only dependent informal work in the formal sector impairs workers' happiness, while the effect of independent informal work is not statistically significant. The potential mechanisms suggest that independent informal workers have higher working time flexibility and can work more hours to increase their earnings, which increases their subjective well-being. However, it is difficult for dependent informal workers to earn more by working more hours due to poor working time flexibility.

This study indicates that informal workers in the formal sector have lower subjective well-being in urban China and deserve more attention from policymakers. The author also suggests that increasing working time flexibility and encouraging self-employment can contribute to the welfare of informal workers.

Several empirical studies indicate that the existence of a large informal sector is a major obstacle to firms’ choices of innovation strategies. This paper aims to address this issue and investigates the effect of the informal sector on the innovation of formal firms in Greece.

Using the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey data, the impact of informal competition on formal firms’ innovation in Greece is investigated by testing whether formal firms use innovation as a tool to protect and sustain their competitive advantage vis-à-vis informal firms and whether overall and informal competition has an inverted-U relationship with the innovation of formal firms. The effects of bribing and other variables drawn from the empirical literature are also controlled for.

The findings fill a gap in the literature regarding the effects of the informal sector on formal economic activity in Greece, by indicating that the informal sector puts pressure on formal firms to innovate, in order to differentiate their product or service and enhance their productivity and by offering learnings to help policymakers to promote innovation in Greece.

The originality of this study is that it investigates the impact of informal competition on formal firms’ innovation in Greece, a developed economy with a large informal sector. It does so by focusing on the effects that formal firms’ informal practices have on their competitors’ innovation activities, and the role of informal competition in creating and sustaining a competitive advantage in Greece.

The microfinancing sector is infamous for being prone to high credit risks due to loan defaults by its poor borrowers. Conversely, the sector is also criticized for creating debt traps for the poor. The dual nature of these peculiar problems in microfinancing causes the market failure phenomenon. Therefore, the current study explores whether public policy intervention is required to address market failure.

The study undertakes a critical review of existing literature, the news, the policy documents and other publicly available information to shape the viewpoints in this study. Constructive criticism is used to build arguments to arrive at a conceptual framework that depicts how public policy should interact with markets to address the peculiar problems of the microfinancing sector.

The findings indicate that market failure in microfinancing is real and pressing. Therefore, public policy is invited, though in its limited form. While the policy intervention may help the formal microfinancing arena by regulating the interest rates, the policy administration in the informal sector is likely to fail. Therefore, the policy should attempt to create an environment of inclusiveness. Policies that rely on coercion are not recommended. In the long run, subsidies via policy intervention are discouraged. Instead, the policy should motivate the microfinancing sector to become self-reliant.

The study is one of its kind to provide perspectives on specific market failures and policy interventions in microfinancing, particularly in economies where formal and informal sectors coexist and are equally crucial.

In pursuit of good governance and better allocation of resources, corruption and informal economy are of interest to policymakers and citizens alike. The impacts of military spending on the informal economy are scant. Moreover, the effects of an external factor, such as corruption that moderates this relationship, have largely been neglected in previous studies. Hence, this paper investigates how corruption moderates the effects of military spending on the informal economy in 30 Asian countries from 1995 to 2017.

This paper utilizes the GMM estimation technique, which allows cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity in panel data analysis, to examine the moderating role of corruption on the relationship between military spending and the informal economy.

Empirical findings from this paper indicate that an increase in military spending declines the informal economy while corruption increases it. Interestingly, the negative effects of military spending on the informal economy will mitigate with a greater degree of corruption in the Asian region. We also find that enhancing economic growth and attracting more FDI has reduced the informal economy in Asian countries.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted to examine the moderating role of corruption on the military spending – informal economy nexus. Thus far, this approach has not been investigated in the existing literature, particularly for Asian countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the empirical literature on the effects of informal competition on firm performance and provide directions for future research.

We search the Scopus and Web of Science databases and adopt a specific protocol to perform a systematic review of the literature. We screen 536 documents and apply three inclusion criteria for filtering.

We identify the impact of informal competition on nine types of formal firms' performance. We assess the findings according to the explanatory and response variables and the data samples of the articles reviewed. We find that five areas of focus are under-researched due to analyses of country or region-specific data, or lack of consensus because of contradicting findings.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first review of the empirical literature on the effects of informal competition on the performance of formal firms.

Egypt has set plans to transform into a green economy which requires major reforms in the waste sector as one of the most vital sectors crucial for this transformation. This study aims at inspecting the current status of the Egyptian waste sector to highlight the major policy reforms needed. Furthermore, it assesses the economic viability of establishing waste-to-energy (WtE) projects under the current regulations that govern the sector.

The study employed an inductive analytical approach to scrutinize the institutional and regulatory framework of the waste and WtE sectors. Furthermore, a novel techno-economic analysis was conducted to assess the profitability of a WtE plant that employs moving grate incineration technology.

The analysis of the waste sector revealed its deteriorating state and the dire need for immediate restructuring through more stringent regulations to establish an integrated waste management system (IWMS) that incorporates WtE technologies as well as a number of corrective actions that would help enhance the sector. Additionally, the techno-economic analysis revealed the need to amend the current WtE regulation to comprise a gate fee as an indispensable revenue stream for WtE projects.

This study is one of a few studies that uses a new technique of analysis to explore the potential role that WtE projects can play in Egypt as a part of an IWMS that aims at transforming the waste sector into a resource sector while providing a renewable and sustainable source of energy.

This paper aims to investigate the factors influencing trade artisans’ choice of skills selection as apprentice’s trainee in the Ghanaian construction sector and to identify and address the challenges associated with traditional apprenticeship. Trade artisans with technical know-how in construction and general workplace skills from the traditional apprenticeship training (TAT) in the area of construction were selected from selected sites and training centers.

This paper adopted the purposive sampling technique with the aim of gathering knowledge from individuals with expertise in the research area, particularly trade craftsmen who have been trained through the TAT system and are directly involved in construction-related works. Partial least square structure equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analytical approach and principal component analysis were used to reduce the dimensionality of the data set and preserve as much information as possible.

Three major components, namely, personal and social interest, job assessment and stability and family and faith were identified as the variables that influence an artisan's choice of a skill trade. These influenced the choice of apprenticeship training by young trainees in choosing apprenticeship as a mode of training. Personal interest, living situation of artisans and parents’ educational attainment are the most influencing factors that determine artisans’ choice of selected trades. Moreover, the study also shed light on the challenges inherent in traditional apprenticeship systems, such as the lack of formal technical education, limited access to modern technology and information and poor working conditions.

The study underscores the imperative for stakeholders to enhance apprenticeship programmes within the construction sector. This involves providing more stable job opportunities, improving working conditions and offering access to modern technology and information. Such enhancements not only attract more young individuals to apprenticeship training but also ensure the sustainability and relevance of the workforce in meeting industry demands.

The study finally developed a model that could be used as a foundation for future PLS-SEM evaluation and identified the factors that influence the selection of apprenticeship training by trade artisans.

This study aims at estimating the gender wage gap in Ecuador, and its evolution over the last decade and a half, exploring its heterogeneity through different working conditions (formal/informal, full employment/underemployment, short term/long term and tenure/no tenure) and workers personal characteristics (education level; age and children).

Propensity score matching (PSM) and coarsened exact matching (CEM) are used to examine the gender pay inequality of wage earners in Ecuador, using the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) data set from 2007 to 2022.

Results show a persistent gender pay gap, evidencing a significant heterogeneity through the different dimensions taken into account, in terms of working conditions and workers personal characteristics. The evolution of the pay gap during the years analyzed hardly shows any reduction of differences in earnings between men and women; on the contrary, women exposure to precarious and unregulated jobs seems to be increasing wage inequality.

The results make the case for active policies oriented not only at containing the negative effects of the traditional division of labor within the family but also at improving labor law enforcement, mitigating informality and workers rapid turnover.

This study is one of the few that use matching techniques to study the gender wage gap and the first in Ecuador; the time span taken into account is larger than previous studies, allowing a medium-long run perspective across different economic phases.

The shadow economy (SE) has been a serious issue with varied dimensions in all countries that significantly affect economic growth. Therefore, all countries have made an effort to tackle the SE by pursuing several measures. This study aims to investigate the impact of financial markets (stock and bond) in reducing the SE while considering the role of country risk (political, economic and financial) in N-11 countries.

The study employed first-generation methodological techniques, including a unit root test to identify stationarity in the series, a panel cointegration test and panel autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) to estimate long-run and short-run relationships. Finally, the Granger causality is applied to determine the direction of the causal relationship.

The study explored that country risk factors are crucial in reducing the size of the SE. Moreover, the significant moderating role of country risk factors in the financial market development and SE nexus suggests that by controlling the country's risk, financial market development can negatively affect the SE.

Due to the availability of data, the study used data, ranging from 1995 to 2015, because the tax burden data is available from 1995 while the maximum data for the SE is available till 2015, using Medina and Schneider's (2019) data estimates for the SE.

The previous studies have focused explicitly on the role of financial institutions' development in the SE. To the best of the author's knowledge, no previous study is attempted to investigate the role of financial markets (bonds and stock) in the size of the SE. Furthermore, previous studies have ignored the important role of country risk factors in the size of the SE. This study investigates the impact of country risk on the SE and the moderating role of country risk in the development of financial markets and the SE nexus.

The global non-attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 indicates the issue of rising gender inequality. Educated women shying away from the labor force is worsening it. The labor market dynamics might shape the female labor force participation (FLFP). The present study recommends a policy framework by analyzing this dynamism across 125 countries over 1990–2020.

The Two-step System Generalized Method of Moments is used to address endogeneity bias. Dynamism in policy environment is captured by relaxing the Ceteris Paribus condition in the empirical model.

Results show that the moderation of labor market factors has increased with the attainment of Secondary and Tertiary Education. Results also highlight that these factors promote FLFP through prospective opportunities but also hinder female participation through employer’s discrimination despite educational attainment.

Studies have examined the role of education on FLFP. However, prior research has not investigated the role of labor market factors in influencing the impact of education on FLFP. The consideration of these factors will help in addressing the global policy lacuna by recommending a policy framework for enhancing FLFP through internalization of the externalities exerted by the labor market factors, and thereby, help the countries attaining the SDG 5 objectives.