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The purpose of this paper is to challenge the default portrayal of street trade as an informal occupation and spatial practice, by examining comparatively the changes in the regulatory frameworks of two politically distinct city administrations in Latin America since the introduction of the informal economy debate.

This paper draws from a comparative case study design to synthesize evidence from historical administrative records, secondary research and materials from a two-year fieldwork carried out in Lima and Bogotá in 2008 and 2009.

The author argues that the incorporation of the informal economy framework into local governments’ policymaking has reframed street trade as a subject of policy. Since the 1970s, the author traces a shift from worker-centered initiatives, through the deregulation of street trade, to entrepreneurial-centered approaches. Nowadays, both, Lima’s neoliberal governance focusing on “formalizing” and Bogotá’s socialist/progressive governance aiming at “upgrading” street trade respond more explicitly to distinct assessments about the informal economy – legalist and dualist, respectively. Yet, both cities converge in that the closer street trade is perceived as an informal occupation; the more likely policy initiatives decouple the right to work from the right to access public space, spurring more marginal forms of street vending.

Even though the informal economy framework has helped to draw attention to important policy issues locally, nationally and internationally, this paper calls for a critical revision of such framing at the local level to allow for inclusive urban governance.

Informal street vending is traditionally widespread and studied concerning developing countries. Nevertheless, recently, interest in the study of this practice has also increased regarding specific developed countries. The aim of the article is to contribute to overcoming the tendency to investigate this informal economy sector with different analytical lenses between the global South and global North and to highlight the usefulness of analyzing the phenomenon from a comparative perspective.

Therefore, the article represents a comparative review of the existing literature on informal street vending considering both the global South and global North.

The analysis revealed similarities and differences in the characteristics the phenomenon assumes in the two areas of the world while at the same time, showing how there are aspects mainly explored in the literature of southern countries and little explored in the literature of northern countries and vice-versa.

This analytical attempt allows us to highlight any gaps present in the literature, which may represent the basis for future comparative research on the topic. Comparative research will improve both theoretical and empirical knowledge of the phenomenon.

On the one hand, the article represents an innovative literature review attempt, as it explicitly compares the street vending between developing and developed countries. On the other hand, it represents the first academic contribution to review street vending in the global North.

The informal segment compared to the formal segment is developing rapidly in urban areas of many developing Muslim countries. However, matter of fact, the contribution factor of the food cart business to the economic outline of the country has been vastly overlooked or neglected. The authority, policymakers, social organisations, vendors and the customers together need to play a contributing role based on intervention tactics regarding the major focus areas related to the development of this business segment. As a result, this study aims to explore concerns or issues that are hampering future business prospects considering the philosophy of halalan tayyiba.

The study has organised 16 semi-structured interview procedures with relevant food cart vendors of Chittagong, Bangladesh. The study selected participants (food cart vendors) from lower- to medium-income areas occupying at least one high school, one college in relation to several commercial premises (ex-mini shopping malls, offices and small factories) considering 6 out of 41 wards of Chittagong city corporation. All meetings with reflected participants were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim and transcripts were loaded into NVivo for coding and analysis procedure.

This investigation revealed that issues with food security, weather, lack of proper legislation, lack of awareness related with halalan tayyiba and erratic policies are the major challenges for the development of the food cart business in Chittagong. This study also advances how street food security well-being and hygiene practices are a piece of the halal idea and should in this way be adjusted by the halal food segment to accomplish halalan tayyiba affirmation. The outcomes also indicate an agenda for future research in this area.

More reflections from the different stakeholders do have both pertinence and potential for incorporation in suggestions.

The detected findings may help both authority and other concerned entities to identify the critical dynamics to initiate appropriate strategic activities towards local economic growth considering halalan tayyiba outlines.

It will ensure social well-being and food security.

This explorative research is one of few studies in the Bangladesh context, which is investigating halalan tayyiba-oriented business development outline for micro entrepreneurs.

Toyota's internationally coordinated production system in Asia and its selection of supply bases in South America and South Africa highlights the significance of recognizing global network firms and the global hub-and-spoke logistics system that has been developed to meet their needs. This system underpins the expansion of container shipping, air freight and telecommunications. Recognition of Main Street, linking Europe, Asia and North America with cui-desacs in Africa, Australasia and Central and South America, provides a framework for examining the relative importance of the system's hubs and terminals across different modes and regions. This analysis provides the basis for identifying and ranking key regional logistics platforms in Northeast Asia and their attraction as headquarter sites for global network firms. Examining the logistical situation pertaining after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s and a decade later is used to gauge progress towards regional economic integration in Northeast Asia.

Recent changes in the UK to the regulation and modes of work in the formal and informal economies are considered. Research in this field has tended to remain in silos (treating formal economy working conditions separately from research on the informal economy). The question is whether the means of work and benefits to the worker for formal and informal work are now as different as the former images of formal and informal economy work imply under a “jobs-for-life” economy. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the current aim of government regulation of the informal economy – to formalise it – is actually of benefit to workers, as might be supposed.

This paper considers recent research findings on the formal and informal economy, using official government statistics for the UK and more detailed European studies on the informal economy.

This paper argues that formal employment in the UK is becoming more casualised, with less associated benefits to employees. Though it is still of benefit to the state to formalise informal work (to increase tax take), some of the links between formalisation and a good working environment for workers are being broken, which may lead to the informal economy becoming more popular and requiring different priorities in its regulation.

This paper argues that we need to change our assumptions and image of work in the formal economy, compared to that in the informal economy.

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.

This study uses a qualitative research design, incorporating structured interviews instrumental in data collection and in-depth thematic analysis.

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.

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic is certain to have an unprecedented impact on the global population, but marginalized and vulnerable groups in low-income countries (LICs) are predicted to carry the largest burden. This study focuses on the implications of COVID-19-related measures on three population groups in India, including (1) migrant laborers (of which a majority come from Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), as well as Other Backward Classes (OBCs)), (2) children from low-income families and, (3) refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

This study adopts a sequential mixed-method research design. A desk-based study of a selection of government reports was undertaken on the COVID-19-related mitigation measures. The desk study was followed by in-depth interviews with purposively recruited high-ranking experts in specific sectors of policy implementation and service delivery across the country.

The outcomes of this study shed light on (1) the most urgent needs that need to be addressed per population group, (2) the variety of state-level responses as well as best practices observed to deal with mitigation issues and (3) opportunities for quick relief as well as more long-term solutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only reduced people's means of maintaining a livelihood but has simultaneously revealed some of India's long-standing problems with infrastructure and resource distribution in a range of sectors, including nutrition and health, education, etc. There is an urgent need to construct effective pathways to trace and respond to those people who are desolate, and to learn from – and support – good practices at the grassroot level.

The current study contributes to the discussion on how inclusive public health might be reached.

This study explores the relationship between corruption and shadow economy (SE) by examining the potential links and interactions between these two phenomena to see whether it is a one-way or two-way relationship and a complementarity or substitution linkage.

Using a dataset comprised of 145 countries all over the world between 1996 and 2015, the authors apply the simultaneous two-step system generalized method of moments approach to address the research question.

The study findings support a positive bidirectional relationship between corruption and SE. As such, this study has provided evidence supporting the complementarity association. In the authors' further analyses, they point out that several factors can moderate this positive bidirectional linkage. In particular, while Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows strengthen it, it is weakened by other institutional factors such as civil liberties and political rights. Finally, by splitting the full sample into three different subsamples and then examining countries at varying stages of economic development, the authors can gain valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of the relationship between corruption and SE. Specifically, while the authors observe that the positive direction of corruption to SE remains unchanged across different nations, they observe that the positive influence of SE on corruption is strongest among developed economies only.

The study findings provide an important policy implication. This study highlights the synergistic relationship between SE and corruption, indicating that reducing corruption will reduce the size of the SE. Consequently, this reduction in the SE can mitigate the adverse effects of corruption on economic development.

This paper is among the first empirical studies that critically investigate the interrelationship between SE and corruption. It then explores how this two-way linkage is conditional on some factors, such as economic development levels and institutional quality indicators.

This paper aims to find, which of the assets: gold, oil or bitcoin can be considered a safe-haven for investors in a crisis-driven Venezuela. The authors look also at the governmental change of approach towards the use and mining of cryptocurrencies being one of the assets and potential applications of bitcoin as (quasi) money.

The authors collected the daily data (a period from 01 May 2014 to 31 July 2018) on the development of the following magnitudes: Caracas Stock Exchange main index: Índice Bursátil de Capitalisación (IBC) index; gold price in US dollars, the oil price in US dollars and Bitcoin price in bolivar fuerte (VEF) (LocalBitcoins). The authors estimated a threshold VAR model between IBC and each of the possible safe-haven assets, where the trigger variable was the IBC; then the authors modelled the residuals from the TVAR model using MGARCH model with dynamic conditional correlation.

The results show that that gold is a better safe-haven than oil for Venezuelan investors, while bitcoin can be considered a weak safe haven. Still, bitcoin can perform (to a certain extent) money functions in a crisis-driven country.

Further research after the change of local currency from VEF into bolivar soberano might be looked at on the later stage.

The authors provide evidence on which of analysed asset is the best safe-haven for the investors acting in the time of the crisis. The evidence goes in line with other authors’ findings, thus, the results might bring implications for investors of more universal character. Additionally, the result might be helpful for governments and/or monetary authorities while projecting institutional frameworks and conducting monetary policy.

The unprecedented economic crisis in Venezuela was one of the factors that fuelled the mining and use of cryptocurrencies in the daily life of its citizens. Nowadays, the country is a leader in terms of the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in Latin America. The results show a potential application of bitcoin as a store of value or even means of payments in Venezuelan (or in other countries affected by the crisis).

The paper builds on the original data set collected by the authors and brings evidence from the models the authors constructed to verify, which asset is the best option for investors in hard times of the crisis. The authors add to the existing literature on financial assets, cryptocurrencies and behaviour of investors under different economic conditions.