Hybrid economies and statebuilding: resilience despite intrusiveness.

How do extra-legal economies transform over time, and what is the role of armed conflict and 'post-conflict' intervention in this process? Far from being a collateral or temporary aspect, informal and criminal economies are deeply ingrained in the dynamics of globalisation. This paper draws on a number of cases of hybrid economic governance and of contemporary statebuilding/peacebuilding in the wider context of state deformation and formation. It adopts a political economy approach to exploring the persistence and pervasiveness of informal and criminal economic activities vis-à-vis intrusive international attempts at building a functioning market economy, and it reflects upon the implications for development and statebuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]