A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy, by Colin C. Williams
- Authors: Rogan, Michael
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/473700 , vital:77674 , https://ilr-rit.org/article/id/19385/
- Description: Colin C. Williams’ new book, A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy, offers a timely analysis of a segment of the global workforce that has received increasing atten tion in recent years. A range of different measures suggest that, globally, the vast majority (61 per cent) of all employment is informal.1 Once thought to be exclusive to labour markets in middle- and low-income countries, the rise of platform work and the gig economy in the economies of developed countries has spurred new inter est in the subject. Similarly, the uneven effects of the pandemic and its aftermath have drawn unprecedented attention to the resultant economic and social crisis, which has disproportionately affected workers in the informal economy.2 Using the most internationally comparable definition of the informal economy as comprising all workers without legal or social protection through their employment,3 the recent pandemic and continuing economic crisis has left the bulk of the global workforce without a safety net. Such a “moment” naturally raises questions about the structure of employment, the role and reach of social protection programmes and the policy options available in countries where informal employment is the norm.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Rogan, Michael
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/473700 , vital:77674 , https://ilr-rit.org/article/id/19385/
- Description: Colin C. Williams’ new book, A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy, offers a timely analysis of a segment of the global workforce that has received increasing atten tion in recent years. A range of different measures suggest that, globally, the vast majority (61 per cent) of all employment is informal.1 Once thought to be exclusive to labour markets in middle- and low-income countries, the rise of platform work and the gig economy in the economies of developed countries has spurred new inter est in the subject. Similarly, the uneven effects of the pandemic and its aftermath have drawn unprecedented attention to the resultant economic and social crisis, which has disproportionately affected workers in the informal economy.2 Using the most internationally comparable definition of the informal economy as comprising all workers without legal or social protection through their employment,3 the recent pandemic and continuing economic crisis has left the bulk of the global workforce without a safety net. Such a “moment” naturally raises questions about the structure of employment, the role and reach of social protection programmes and the policy options available in countries where informal employment is the norm.
- Full Text:
COVID-19 and Informal Work: Degrees and Pathways of Impact in 11 Cities around the World
- Chen, Martha A, Grapsa, Erofili, Ismail, Ghida, Reed, Sarah O, Rogan, Michael, Valdivia, Marcela
- Authors: Chen, Martha A , Grapsa, Erofili , Ismail, Ghida , Reed, Sarah O , Rogan, Michael , Valdivia, Marcela
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/473883 , vital:77690 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: In May 2018, the International Labour Organization (ILO) published the first ever global estimates of informal employment. These global estimates show that 61 per cent of all workers worldwide are informally employed—a total of two billion workers (Bonnet et al. 2019: 4; ILO 2018: 13). They also show that the rate of informal employment is highest in developing countries (at 90 per cent), lowest in developed countries (at 18 per cent), and quite significant in emerging countries (at 67 per cent) (Bonnet et al. 2019: 4; ILO 2018: 14).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Chen, Martha A , Grapsa, Erofili , Ismail, Ghida , Reed, Sarah O , Rogan, Michael , Valdivia, Marcela
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/473883 , vital:77690 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: In May 2018, the International Labour Organization (ILO) published the first ever global estimates of informal employment. These global estimates show that 61 per cent of all workers worldwide are informally employed—a total of two billion workers (Bonnet et al. 2019: 4; ILO 2018: 13). They also show that the rate of informal employment is highest in developing countries (at 90 per cent), lowest in developed countries (at 18 per cent), and quite significant in emerging countries (at 67 per cent) (Bonnet et al. 2019: 4; ILO 2018: 14).
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COVID-19 and the Informal Economy: Impact, Recovery, and the Future
- Chen, Martha A, Rogan, Michael, Sen, Kunal
- Authors: Chen, Martha A , Rogan, Michael , Sen, Kunal
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/473905 , vital:77692 , ISBN 9780198887041 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: A key challenge for the post-COVID-19 global economy is whether the disproportionate impact of the crisis on informal workers, who form the majority of the world’s workforce, will be acknowledged. Or whether harmful and negative stereotypes will persist. Today, despite the role of these essential frontline workers — producing, processing, selling, cooking and delivering food, providing cleaning, childcare, eldercare, healthcare, transport, waste removal, and other essential services — many observers consider the informal economy to be non-compliant (resisting registration and taxation) and associate it with low productivity (a drag on the economy) or with crime (illegal activities) and grime (blight on modern cities). Yet, most informal workers are working poor trying to earn an honest living in often hostile environments. Most suffered severe declines in work and earnings during successive waves of the COVID pandemic, and related restrictions and recessions, and have gone deeper into debt and depleted their savings and assets in order to survive. This book explores and informs answers to that key challenge. It presents findings on the impact of the COVID crisis on informal workers in Asia, Africa and North and Latin America. The chapters of the volume analyse the impact of the COVID crisis on informal workers, interrogate whether and which economic recovery plans and schemes include informal workers and explore what a more inclusive economic recovery and reforms might look like.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Chen, Martha A , Rogan, Michael , Sen, Kunal
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/473905 , vital:77692 , ISBN 9780198887041 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: A key challenge for the post-COVID-19 global economy is whether the disproportionate impact of the crisis on informal workers, who form the majority of the world’s workforce, will be acknowledged. Or whether harmful and negative stereotypes will persist. Today, despite the role of these essential frontline workers — producing, processing, selling, cooking and delivering food, providing cleaning, childcare, eldercare, healthcare, transport, waste removal, and other essential services — many observers consider the informal economy to be non-compliant (resisting registration and taxation) and associate it with low productivity (a drag on the economy) or with crime (illegal activities) and grime (blight on modern cities). Yet, most informal workers are working poor trying to earn an honest living in often hostile environments. Most suffered severe declines in work and earnings during successive waves of the COVID pandemic, and related restrictions and recessions, and have gone deeper into debt and depleted their savings and assets in order to survive. This book explores and informs answers to that key challenge. It presents findings on the impact of the COVID crisis on informal workers in Asia, Africa and North and Latin America. The chapters of the volume analyse the impact of the COVID crisis on informal workers, interrogate whether and which economic recovery plans and schemes include informal workers and explore what a more inclusive economic recovery and reforms might look like.
- Full Text:
Gendered labour market outcomes among South African technical and vocational education and training (TVET) completers
- Friderichs, Tamaryn J, Rogan, Michael, Needham, Seamus
- Authors: Friderichs, Tamaryn J , Rogan, Michael , Needham, Seamus
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/470853 , vital:77401 , https://doi.org/10.14426/jovacet.v7i2.417
- Description: South Africa's post-school education and training (PSET) system plays an important role in addressing historical inequalities and preparing youth for the labour market. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges have seen rising female enrolment, including in traditionally male-dominated fields like Engineering. This study examines whether women's increased participation in TVET programmes translates into equal labour market opportunities. Using administrative enrolment data and a tracer study of TVET completers, findings show that female completers face significantly higher unemployment rates than men, unrelated to the over-representation in Business Studies or services programmes. Additionally, women earn 22% less than men, even after accounting for study choices and qualification levels. While challenges remain in ensuring gender parity, the increasing presence of women in male-dominated fields signals progress. Efforts must focus on translating these gains into equitable employment outcomes.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Friderichs, Tamaryn J , Rogan, Michael , Needham, Seamus
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/470853 , vital:77401 , https://doi.org/10.14426/jovacet.v7i2.417
- Description: South Africa's post-school education and training (PSET) system plays an important role in addressing historical inequalities and preparing youth for the labour market. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges have seen rising female enrolment, including in traditionally male-dominated fields like Engineering. This study examines whether women's increased participation in TVET programmes translates into equal labour market opportunities. Using administrative enrolment data and a tracer study of TVET completers, findings show that female completers face significantly higher unemployment rates than men, unrelated to the over-representation in Business Studies or services programmes. Additionally, women earn 22% less than men, even after accounting for study choices and qualification levels. While challenges remain in ensuring gender parity, the increasing presence of women in male-dominated fields signals progress. Efforts must focus on translating these gains into equitable employment outcomes.
- Full Text:
South Africa’s Informal Economy and COVID-19. COVID-19 and the Informal Economy
- Rogan, Michael, Skinner, Catherine
- Authors: Rogan, Michael , Skinner, Catherine
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478007 , vital:78146 , ISBN 9780198887041 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been recognized that informal workers would be among the most severely affected (ILO 2020). This is a departure from the past, where it has often been assumed that the informal sector absorbs jobs which have been lost in the formal sector due to greater flexibility in the ability to respond to downturns and to make adjustments at the intensive margins (Ohnsorge and Yu 2021; Verick 2010). However, not only is the current crisis fairly unique in the way it has impacted on labour markets in particular and economies in general, but also the effects of the crisis have been experienced most acutely in the sectors of the labour market in which women, young people, and informalworkersaremostheavilyconcentrated.Togetherwithawell-documented gendered component to the crisis (Alon et al. 2020), this has meant that informal economies in middle- and low-income countries have been left exposed and with few resources to recover. The fact that the majority of employment in these economies is informal (ILO 2018; Ohnsorge and Yu 2021) then translates into a vicious cycle of reduced demandandlimitedfiscalspacetostimulatetheeconomy (Mhlana et al. 2023).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Rogan, Michael , Skinner, Catherine
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478007 , vital:78146 , ISBN 9780198887041 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been recognized that informal workers would be among the most severely affected (ILO 2020). This is a departure from the past, where it has often been assumed that the informal sector absorbs jobs which have been lost in the formal sector due to greater flexibility in the ability to respond to downturns and to make adjustments at the intensive margins (Ohnsorge and Yu 2021; Verick 2010). However, not only is the current crisis fairly unique in the way it has impacted on labour markets in particular and economies in general, but also the effects of the crisis have been experienced most acutely in the sectors of the labour market in which women, young people, and informalworkersaremostheavilyconcentrated.Togetherwithawell-documented gendered component to the crisis (Alon et al. 2020), this has meant that informal economies in middle- and low-income countries have been left exposed and with few resources to recover. The fact that the majority of employment in these economies is informal (ILO 2018; Ohnsorge and Yu 2021) then translates into a vicious cycle of reduced demandandlimitedfiscalspacetostimulatetheeconomy (Mhlana et al. 2023).
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The Price of Simplicity: Skewed and Regressive Taxation in Accra’s Informal Sector
- Anyidoho, Nana A, Gallien, Max, Rogan, Michael, Van den Boogaard, Vanessa
- Authors: Anyidoho, Nana A , Gallien, Max , Rogan, Michael , Van den Boogaard, Vanessa
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478073 , vital:78152 , ISBN , DOI: 10.19088/ICTD.2024.044
- Description: International and domestic policymakers have long assumed that informal economies represent an ‘untapped goldmine’ for government coffers. While recent research has highlighted that many informal businesses do pay a range of formal and informal taxes, there has, to date, been little systematic account of their tax burdens. Using a novel dataset of 2,700 informal enterprises in the Accra metropolitan area, we explore the nature and impact of taxation in the informal sector. We find that the majority of informal sector operators pay a range of taxes and fees, which together amount to a significant burden, especially for low earners. These payments are skewed and regressive. Two additional findings emerge in relation to the structure of these taxes. First, the incidence and burden of tax payments is strongly correlated with visibility to the state. Second, taxes and fees are highly regressive, with lower-earning operators paying significantly more in relation to their earnings. These findings have important implications for efforts to tax informal businesses in low- and middle- income countries. The regressivity of efforts to tax the informal sector is often framed as a price worth paying for simplicity. Our study provides both an estimation of this ‘price’, and an underlying argument for collecting this kind of data on taxation of informal enterprises in order to assess real policy impacts.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Anyidoho, Nana A , Gallien, Max , Rogan, Michael , Van den Boogaard, Vanessa
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478073 , vital:78152 , ISBN , DOI: 10.19088/ICTD.2024.044
- Description: International and domestic policymakers have long assumed that informal economies represent an ‘untapped goldmine’ for government coffers. While recent research has highlighted that many informal businesses do pay a range of formal and informal taxes, there has, to date, been little systematic account of their tax burdens. Using a novel dataset of 2,700 informal enterprises in the Accra metropolitan area, we explore the nature and impact of taxation in the informal sector. We find that the majority of informal sector operators pay a range of taxes and fees, which together amount to a significant burden, especially for low earners. These payments are skewed and regressive. Two additional findings emerge in relation to the structure of these taxes. First, the incidence and burden of tax payments is strongly correlated with visibility to the state. Second, taxes and fees are highly regressive, with lower-earning operators paying significantly more in relation to their earnings. These findings have important implications for efforts to tax informal businesses in low- and middle- income countries. The regressivity of efforts to tax the informal sector is often framed as a price worth paying for simplicity. Our study provides both an estimation of this ‘price’, and an underlying argument for collecting this kind of data on taxation of informal enterprises in order to assess real policy impacts.
- Full Text:
What Is Missing from National Economic Recovery Plans? COVID-19 and the Informal Economy
- Mhlana, Siviwe, Moussié, Rachel, Roever, Sally, Rogan, Michael
- Authors: Mhlana, Siviwe , Moussié, Rachel , Roever, Sally , Rogan, Michael
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478139 , vital:78158 , ISBN 9780198887041 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, there was nearuniversal acknowledgement that employment losses, globally, would be borne disproportionately by vulnerable workers, in general, and informal workers, in particular (ILO 2020a). Of the world’s 2.2 billion informal workers, it was estimated that 1.6 billion would be among the most severely affected by job losses and reduced working hours (ILO 2020b). The result of this impact has been the reversal of decades of progress in human development. For example, the number of people living in extreme poverty in emerging markets and developing economies was expected to increase by 100 million by the end of 2021 (World Bank 2021a). Similarly, the gendered burden of job losses has threatened progress towards gender equality, as evidenced by the highly uneven recovery of employment between women and men throughout 2021 (ILO 2021a). Country-level data on job losses provides support for the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) initial projections about the vulnerability of informal workers to the global ‘pandemic recession’. Most informal workers in the world are located in low-and middle-income countries and are in self-employment. Data from ILOSTAT shows that working hours in lower-income countries in 2021 were about 7 per cent below their pre-COVID (2019) levels, while the corresponding decrease was only about 4 per cent in high-income countries (ILO 2021c). Data from Peru in 2020 suggests that the difference in the decrease in labour income between employees and the self employed (who are largely in the informal sector) was 21 percentage points (ILO 2021b; see also Chen and Vanek, Chapter 2 in thisvolume).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mhlana, Siviwe , Moussié, Rachel , Roever, Sally , Rogan, Michael
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478139 , vital:78158 , ISBN 9780198887041 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, there was nearuniversal acknowledgement that employment losses, globally, would be borne disproportionately by vulnerable workers, in general, and informal workers, in particular (ILO 2020a). Of the world’s 2.2 billion informal workers, it was estimated that 1.6 billion would be among the most severely affected by job losses and reduced working hours (ILO 2020b). The result of this impact has been the reversal of decades of progress in human development. For example, the number of people living in extreme poverty in emerging markets and developing economies was expected to increase by 100 million by the end of 2021 (World Bank 2021a). Similarly, the gendered burden of job losses has threatened progress towards gender equality, as evidenced by the highly uneven recovery of employment between women and men throughout 2021 (ILO 2021a). Country-level data on job losses provides support for the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) initial projections about the vulnerability of informal workers to the global ‘pandemic recession’. Most informal workers in the world are located in low-and middle-income countries and are in self-employment. Data from ILOSTAT shows that working hours in lower-income countries in 2021 were about 7 per cent below their pre-COVID (2019) levels, while the corresponding decrease was only about 4 per cent in high-income countries (ILO 2021c). Data from Peru in 2020 suggests that the difference in the decrease in labour income between employees and the self employed (who are largely in the informal sector) was 21 percentage points (ILO 2021b; see also Chen and Vanek, Chapter 2 in thisvolume).
- Full Text:
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