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This paper explores the impact of Internet use on informal employment, and the study found that Internet use can reduce the probability of labourers choosing informal employment. Such an impact is heterogeneous for different groups of labourers, especially significant for the group of labourers from rural regions aged between 21 to 30 years old with a bachelor's degree or above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Scientific Papers NaUKMA. Economics is the property of National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Faculty of Humanities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper quantifies trends, patterns and controversies in the industrial amber market. To achieve the common goal, the amber market was assessed taking into account geographic data and companies' technology entrepreneurship opportunities in order to determine the competitiveness of the suppliers from economies with large amber reserves. The analytical study integrates a statistical approach and technical analysis of data, including correlation. The statistical approach describes the structure of an amber mining company through estimated profits. In a comprehensive way, the estimated indicators explain the amber industry's production and economic activities, with an emphasis on the Russian Federation. The findings suggested that the Russian Federation, with its Kaliningrad Amber Factory with a weak business infrastructure, is the global leader in the amber market. The economic interests of the company's corporate governance focus on exporting raw amber and rebooting the production system based on transparent and legitimate economic relations, and the development of own jewelry production facilities. The findings can be used by companies to plan effective growth strategies and prepare for future challenges in the amber industry, as well as by companies that plan to implement startup ideas in the amber deposit areas. In particular, the strategies may include investing in new technologies, cooperation with scientific institutions, development of processing facilities, compliance with international quality standards and product certification, as well as effective marketing strategies. These measures can help solve challenges and increase the position of companies in this area in the global market. Aimed at supporting the sustainable development of the amber industry, these strategies will help it achieve greater stability and success in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the transition of workers in the MENA region between formal and informal jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and investigates whether trade policy could be adopted as a measure to enhance the transition of workers from the informal to the formal sector. We use the combined COVID-19 MENA Monitor Household Survey constructed by the Economic Research Forum for 5 MENA countries and 11 sectors. This topic is timely and critical for the MENA region where informal employment is widespread, applied tariffs are still high, and female labor participation is low. Our results show that: first, fewer trade restrictions are associated with an increased probability for the worker to become formal and this effect is more pronounced post-pandemic. Second, fewer trade restrictions are linked to an increase in the probability of becoming formal for blue collars only, with an insignificant effect on white collars. Third, fewer trade restrictions are associated with an increase in the probability of men to become formal, with an insignificant effect on women. Finally, the effect of trade policy on job formality depends on the sectoral occupation of the individual with this effect being more pronounced in agriculture and manufacturing relatively to services sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to formulate empirical specification models to examine whether financial development stimulates economic growth and encourages formalization. Cross-country data analysis of 140 sample countries during the period from 2000 to 2018 were utilized, together with new indexes of financial development. The income decomposition method and the two-step estimation approach, together with the multiple linear regression with interactions effect, were employed as empirical methods. It was found that financial development can lower informal self-employment through economic growth. Financial development also contributes to economic growth. Therefore, development of financial markets and financial institutions should be an alternative policy to control informal employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents new evidence on the causal link between fertility and female labor supply by focusing on how informal employment interacts with maternal labor supply. We employ an IV strategy based on an unused data source for twin births in Turkey|a large middle-income country with extensive labor informality. We find that, following the first birth, female labor supply declines significantly and mothers who drop out of labor force are mostly the informally employed ones. This is contrary to the perception that informal jobs might be easier to sustain during motherhood as they are more flexible. Following further increases in family size, formally employed mothers start dropping out of labor force and their hours of work also decline. Higher fertility also leads to lower wages and lower job search intensity among mothers. We document substantial differences between maternal versus paternal labor supply in response to changes in family size. Unlike mothers, fathers increase their labor supply, which mostly comes from elevated informal employment|possibly due to a decline in their reservation wages. As a result, wages decline, hours of work increase, and job search activity shifts from formal to informal search methods for fathers. These results suggest that higher fertility might be associated with increased vulnerabilities and high labor income risks in countries with pervasive labor informality. Our estimates are robust to using alternative IV specifications based on gender composition of siblings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Informal employment is unprotected and unregistered and it is often characterized by precarious working arrangements. Although being a global phenomenon and the most common type of employment worldwide, scholarly attention to its health effects has only recently accelerated. While there is still some debate, informal employment is generally understood to be detrimental to workers' health. However, because women are more vulnerable to informality than men, attention is required to the health consequences of female workers specifically. We conducted a systematic review with the objective to examine the global evidence on the consequences of informal employment, compared to formal employment, on the health of female workers and their children. Methods: We searched peer-reviewed literature in Embase, Medline, PsychInfo, Scopus and Web of Science up until November 11, 2022. No restrictions were applied in terms of year, language or country. Individual-level quantitative studies that compared women of reproductive age in informal and formal employment, or their children (≤ 5 years), were eligible for inclusion. If studies reported outcomes per subgroup level, these were included. Study quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist and a narrative synthesis of the results were conducted. Results: 13 articles were included in the review, looking at breastfeeding outcomes (n = 4), child nutritional status and low birthweight (n = 4), antenatal health (n = 3), and general health outcomes for women (n = 2). The overall evidence from the included studies was that compared to formal employment, there was an association between informal employment and worse health outcomes, especially on child nutritional status and antenatal health. The evidence for breastfeeding outcomes was mixed and showed that informal employment may be both protective and damaging to health. Conclusion: This review showed that informal employment is a potential risk factor for health among female workers and their children. Further research on the pathways between informal employment and health is needed to strengthen the understanding of the health consequences of informal employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of employment has become a central global concern in recent times. This makes the government and development partners to be fully engaged in finding a lasting solution to the problems. In the past, development planning efforts were concentrated on the development of modern industrial sector. Today, there is renewed interest in the informal economy worldwide. This is because a large share of the global workforce and economy is informal and because the informal sector is growing in many contexts and appearing in new places and guises. The informal sector serves as a buffer against unemployment in times of economic downturn, allowing an increasing share of the population to earn a livelihood from the sector rather than stay openly unemployed with no income. The sector has also played a key role in cushioning the adverse impact of economic crises. The paper therefore interrogated the nature of employment in the informal sector and is anchored on Modernisation theory. This paper is based on a desk and literature review of relevant articles and publications as well as on employment and the informal sector. The paper revealed that Nigerian Informal Sector is a major contributor to the Nigerian economy, accounting for a significant portion of employment and national Gross Domestic Product and also the informal sector currently accounts for over half of global employment and as much as 90% of employment in some of the developing countries like Nigeria. The paper therefore recommends that efforts should be made by the government and its agencies to create more jobs. Secondly, policies should be introduced to address identified challenges in the informal sector towards improving productivity and incomes of informal sector workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At this moment, the segmentation of the labor market into formal and informal is well known and also are known the main features specific to the formal/informal duality of the labor market, namely: on the one hand, security and rigidity in the case of formal labor market, and on the other hand the flexibility and lack of social protection in the case of the informal labor market. In the light of these features, which characterize the formal/informal duality of labor market, in this paper we aim to present the main policies applied on the informal labor market, both in terms of workers and of entrepreneurs. Thus, in this paper we will address the following categories of policies addressed to informal activities: employment policies regarding the transition from informal to formal; employment policies regarding the protection of informal workers/entrepreneurs; policies regarding increasing productivity in the informal sector and providing better jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informality is a feature, specific to any economy, regardless its nature and development degree, but it has a significant share in developing or poorly developed economies. In this paper we aim to present the causes determine individuals to opt for informality, whether we are talking about the workforce, or we are talking about entrepreneurs or small companies. Therefore, in this paper we will identify what kind of causes determine the labor force (the employees) to opt for informal employment or employment in the informal sector and also what causes determine the entrepreneurs and firms to opt for the informal sector of the economy. We will also try to establish whether the choice for the informal sector of the economy is a rational decision or is an irrational behavior of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a thick strand of literature demonstrates informally employed workers and irregular migrants being generally worse off in the labor market, little has been done to examine and compare these two sources of disadvantages. Using regression analyses on a survey of migrant workers in Thailand from Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao People's Democratic Republic, the paper measures the prevalence of informal employment and estimates the differential contributions of irregular migration status and informal employment on various employment conditions. The paper finds that informality has a relatively stronger association with worse employment conditions, and systematic differences persist across sectors of employment and countries of origin. Initiatives to improve working conditions for irregular migrant workers should thus focus on both formalizing their employment status and expanding access to legal and safe migration, including social protection programs, in destination countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iran's labour market suffers from long term economic challenges; yet harsh sanctions intensified and complicated its problems. At first glance, it seems that Iran labour market was resilient and performed well during severe sanctions (2012-2019) as the number of employed workforce has increased and unemployment rate decreased while the economy suffered from stagnation, declining investment and high inflation rate. This paper shows that sanction has changed the structure of Iran's labour market; as a great part of workers moved from high valued added activities to lower productivity jobs. Most workers, who lost their jobs in private industries, had to move to low value added services. As the result of sanctions, low paid and temporary informal employment expanded which in turn exacerbated the challenge of widespread poverty and its related social ills. In large state and semi-state manufacturing companies, the number of workers did not decrease, despite the production decline. So, during 2012-2019, employment could rise at the cost of decreasing productivity. For generating a dynamic labour market, at the first step the sanctions must be lifted; yet complementary measures such as sound fiscal, monetary and trade policies must be implemented; and the unnecessary rules and regulations that hinder productive investment and pave the way for rent seeking and corruption must be removed to encourage productive investment and creating sufficient number of sustainable new jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal work, defined as work performed without a formal contract, lowers productivity, reduces tax revenue and hampers economic growth. Reducing informal work is a policy objective in developed and developing countries alike. Yet, particularly since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, most socio-economic policy reforms across Europe have reduced the generosity of unemployment benefit schemes and deregulated employment protection. The authors argue that, while such reforms may have contributed to reducing unemployment, they might also have increased the incidence of informal work. Using European Social Survey data for 2004-12, they find that labour protection is effective in reducing informal wage employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the New York City subway phenomenon known as "showtime." Using an individuals-in-relation framework and drawing on Marxist and feminist economic perspectives, it investigates the job quality of subway dancing as a type of informal self-employment. The data come from thirty-four in-depth interviews conducted in 2016. The paper contextualizes earnings, hours, and conditions of work by considering the social relations and power dynamics in which they are embedded. While dancers articulate advantages of this work, such as setting one's own schedule and having a creative outlet, they also articulate disadvantages, most notably the risk of being arrested. While the dancers see performing on the subway as productively contributing to New York City, the police categorize this activity as a crime. Through this analysis, the paper provides insights into the broader context of work relations and inequality in New York City. HIGHLIGHTS Empowering aspects of subway dancing include not having a boss and ability to express creativity. Challenges include negative passengers and risk of injury or arrest. Subway dancing highlights lack of quality formal employment for marginalized populations in New York City. Criminalizing subway dancing is an example of criminalization of black male bodies in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing countries like India, the majority of the workforce is informal. There is no specific study about the important factors that influence the consumption expenditure of informal workers working in urban areas. The purpose of this paper, thus, is to identify the determinants of the consumption expenditures of urban informal workers, and the same is explored with respect to migration and gender. In this regard, a primary survey was conducted at the household level of the informal sector workers following the method of multi‐stage stratified sampling. The method of analysis of variance and a binary logistic regression model is employed. The inferences of the study explained that the expenditure pattern of the informal worker depends on socio‐economic factors—age group, income level and essential commodities like milk, kerosene, oil and child education. The study also highlights the fact that the informal workers are dragged into the web of a vicious circle of poverty due to a higher level of consumption expenditure than income and demonstrates the effect of betel‐tendu leaf mini cigarette‐tobacco‐alcohol. Hence, it is desirable that the policymakers should frame a regulated subsidised pricing policy for essential commodities as well as increase the minimum wage rate in order to strengthen the basic consumption expenditure of the informal workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Development Research is the property of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Amid globalization and market liberalization, urban informality has continued to grow in leaps and bounds in many parts of the world. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of studies conducted on urban economic informality at various geopolitical contexts to provide an update on the current state of knowledge in the urban informal economy-related research. A total number of 290 studies were sourced from various academic sources; however, a total number of 166 research papers satisfied the requirements of this review paper. The findings of this paper show that research on the urban informal economy has grown from 2000 to 2021, which is a 22-year period in which this review paper was based. The main themes of urban economic informality research depict it as a multifaceted system that is constituted by inputs, processes and outputs that have linkages with the formal economy. Based on these findings, it is recommended that more research should focus on how to integrate research on urban economic informality into the broader agenda of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the individual data from the European Social Survey of 2004 and 2010, the authors of this paper investigate how employment type (permanent, temporary or informal employment) affects subjective well-being in respect to employment protection legislation across European countries. Our study outcomes are in line with previous research disclosing the negative impact of being temporally or informally employed on subjective well-being. The additional contribution of this study is the rigorous analysis of how employment protection legislation (EPL) moderates this effect by applying the multilevel modeling approach for 27 countries. In countries with strict EPL temporary and informal workers are significantly less satisfied with their lives than permanent employees. In countries with liberal EPL no significant decreasing effect from temporary or informal employment on people's subjective well-being was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing circular migration, formal and informal employment and its spatiotemporal characteristics is a complex methodological and practical task for official statistics. A combination of various data sources, including official statistics, administrative data, and data from mobile operators, may provide new opportunities for obtaining circular migration, formal and informal employment estimates for the purposes of various levels of government, including the level of city management. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the use of administrative data together with the mobile operators' data can promptly improve the accuracy and informativeness of statistical indicators of the labor market including formal and informal employment, circular migration, etc. The population and employment in Moscow and in the Moscow agglomeration are the subjects of this paper. Authors combine several data sources such as the federal administrative data from the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and the Federal Tax Authority, data from the Moscow city online public services, data from the mobile phone operators, as well as official statistical information provided by Russian Statistic Authority. The cross-analysis of the data provides important information for the city governance: • estimations of the permanent and temporary population of Moscow and the Moscow agglomeration; • the scale and main directions of the circular migration to and from Moscow and the subsequent delimitation of the real borders of the Moscow agglomeration; • formal and informal employment in the city. The limits of the data used, as well as recommendations for the incorporating administrative and mobile operators' data into the system of official statistics and city management, are also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "alternative", "atypical" or "informal" workforce has grown in developed and developing countries alike. One of the more recent evolutions of informal employment has been of informal employment within formal enterprises. In the interest of flexibility and cost‐reduction, many formal firms increasingly resort to hiring workers on a temporary or informal basis. Alongside, and perhaps, as a result of the persistence and pervasiveness of informal employment, issues relating to inequality have come to the fore. This paper is motivated by these two intertwining aspects of Indian labor market—informality and wage inequality. Using nationally representative sample data, the paper examines trends in wage inequality among various forms of informal workers, overlaying these findings with broader trends in inequality. Using a regression based inequality decomposition, the paper compares the sources of wage inequality across different employment groups and the reasons for differences in wage inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers policymakers a novel tool for calculating employment multipliers. A theoretical model incorporating a non-tradeable employment function is combined with a stochastic frontier methodology to estimate an accurate multiplier. The advantage of this model is that it allows a consideration of unobserved informal employment when estimating the multiplier. We find an employment multiplier effect of 1.2 jobs in the non-tradeable sector for one job in the tradeable sector. Also, the greater the number of skilled consumers, the higher the multiplier indices and the lower the level of informal employment. Moreover, specialised sectors requiring skilled workers also present less informal employment. We use provincial data for Spain over the period 1995–2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 crisis has translated into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis for the poor and marginalized groups in society. The countrywide lockdowns, quarantine measures, and mobility restrictions across 200 countries of the world have resulted in a host of negative manifestations for women. There have been unprecedented losses in the informal economy, which is dominated by women. Some scholars also contend that the pandemic will translate into heightened burden of unpaid domestic work, loss of economic autonomy and disruption to maternal health services. Despite these factors a gendered perspective is absent in the policy response to this crisis. It is against this background that the present paper employed a feminist intersectionality lens to conduct participatory field based research on the lived experiences of women in informal employment in Indian Punjab during the COVID‐19 crisis. The research unearthed the specific pathways through which existing socio‐economic inequities rooted in caste, class and occupational entities magnify the vulnerabilities experienced by women during such a health crisis. The research offers a contextualized framework for understanding the gendered impacts of the crisis. It also highlights the urgency of taking account of gender specific constraints during the health crisis so as to institute robust, effective and equitable policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a static general equilibrium model of occupational choice with heterogeneity in both labor and entrepreneurial skills that generates high levels of employment informality. The model uses a detailed structure of personal income taxes (PITs) and subsidies to formal workers to capture the labor wedges present in many countries. These features enable the model to assess how changes in PITs and subsidies affect labor market outcomes and the government's fiscal accounts. The model is calibrated for Mexico, which, like many developing countries, has high levels of labor informality. The model's simulations shed light on the impact of a series of reforms to PITs and subsidy schemes aimed at increasing labor formality among low-income workers. The results suggest that adjusting the current structure of the formal employment subsidy combined with PIT exemptions for low-income workers could reduce informality while marginally improving the government's fiscal balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informality often concerns policymakers due to its negative implications on productivity and poverty. In recent years, the extent of informal employment has diverged across Mexican states. Varying informal employment dynamics within a comparable institutional environment offers scope to identify policies that can reduce informality. This paper uses cross-state panel and individual data to examine the determinants of informal employment, exploiting the diverging outcomes across states, industries and time. The results suggest that there is no 'silver bullet' to combat informality, yet a package of policies promoting labour skills, encouraging foreign investment, enhancing tax enforcement and deterring corruption can reduce informal employment. Intriguingly, reducing the cost to start a business is found to have a non-linear effect on informal employment, conditional on the prevalence of microenterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing recognition that unregistered employment remains a common problem both in South-East Europe and well beyond, there has been little evidence available on its prevalence and distribution. This paper contributes to filling the gap, by utilising data from a 2017 large scale national representative survey of 8,533 households in Kosovo. This reveals that 34.6% of all employees are engaged in unregistered employment (i.e., they have no employment contract). A Probit regression analysis reveals significant associations between unregistered employment and individual, household, employer and job-related characteristics. Unregistered employment is significantly more prevalent among men, younger people, single, widowed or divorced, those with fewer years in education, living in rural areas and in larger households. It is also significantly more prevalent among those working in construction and services, part-time employees, with shorter employment durations, lower wages, and those in elementary occupations and craft and related trades. The wider theoretical and policy implications are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines informality during the political and economic turmoil that accompanied the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt. The paper focuses on unprotected employment and the extent to which it changed by educational level immediately after the January Uprising of 2011. We find that over time and particularly after the revolution, informal employment has increased for both high‐ and low‐educated workers, albeit through different paths: high‐educated workers were more likely to be stuck in informality, while low‐educated formal workers were more likely to lose their contracts. The increase in informal employment in the wake of the Arab Spring is more pronounced for the high‐educated. The results suggest a high level of rigidity in the Egyptian labour market, even in the wake of the Arab Spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The labour market suffers from several imperfections, most of which act against the women. They face entry barriers which act as a deterrent and discourage them to enter labour market. Using nationally representative sample data collected by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) 2011-12 through quinquennial surveys on "Employment and Unemployment", the paper tries to examine the prevalence of various forms of inequality and the condition of workers across formal and informal sectors, as well as across gender, location and work status. Oaxaca decomposition technique (Oaxaca 1973) is also used to examine the contribution of inequality factors to overall inequality. A substantial wage disparity is found across workers of different regions, sectors and gender. Women workers earn much lower wages than their male counterparts and the inequality among them is also much higher. The analysis also suggested a comparatively a high gender wage gap in various categories of activities. It is surprising to find that in India the wage disparity exists mainly because of large wage difference within the various categories of workers. Further, the examination of the sources of wage difference reveals that gender wage gap is mostly because of discrimination in wage distribution against women workers. The endowment is the greater contributing factor in case of wage gaps between regular and casual workers and also for rural and urban divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]