Reading Development

Random readings on society, politics and change – Jorge Carrillo

The gender productivity gap – Evidence from the Indian informal sector

We examine the patterns and correlates of the productivity gap between male-owned and female-owned firms for informal enterprises in India. Female-owned firms are on average 45 per cent less productive … Continue reading

Tuesday, 28 December 2021 · Leave a comment

Toward street vending in post COVID-19 China

With the progress of epidemic containment, the Chinese government has relaxed its regulatory policies on street vending, hoping to help people who have lost their livelihoods and to assist in … Continue reading

Thursday, 26 August 2021 · Leave a comment

The Informal Economy Revisited

This 34-chapter open-access book brings together leading scholars to investigate recent conceptual shifts, research findings and policy debates on the informal economy. Well over half of the global workforce and … Continue reading

Wednesday, 15 July 2020 · Leave a comment

Beyond formal and informal: Understanding urban informalities from Freetown

Drawing from the findings of a research project, this paper provides insights on what the activities and spaces referred to in policy as “informal” are and what this classification does. … Continue reading

Tuesday, 30 June 2020 · Leave a comment

Explaining and tackling the informal economy: an evaluation of competing perspectives

This paper provides an evidence-based evaluation of the competing ways of explaining and tackling the informal economy. Conventionally, participants have been viewed as rational economic actors who engage in the … Continue reading

Saturday, 28 December 2019 · Leave a comment

Reappropriating Public Space in Nanchang, China: A Study of Informal Street Vendors

Since China’s shift to market socialism, many marginalized by this process work as informal street vendors where they reappropriate public space in order to survive―a practice at odds with urban … Continue reading

Tuesday, 10 December 2019 · Leave a comment

What’s in a Word? The Conceptual Politics of ‘Informal’ Street Trade in Dar es Salaam

Focussing on policies towards urban street trade in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in this paper I illustrate how despite the widely acknowledged limits to its analytical usefulness, the contested and … Continue reading

Sunday, 7 July 2019 · Leave a comment

Formalising the informal economy – Argentina, Costa Rica, Philippines and Kenya

This paper seeks to summarise the findings of the case studies that have been carried out over the last year as part of a joint initiative between the International Trade … Continue reading

Thursday, 14 February 2019 · Leave a comment

Formalising the formal economy in Argentina

The study of Argentina mainly covers the period 2003 to 2016. Within that period, the use of social dialogue to address the informal economy resulted in a 1440 per cent increase of … Continue reading

Wednesday, 13 February 2019 · Leave a comment