Work in the informal economy

This chapter transcends the dualistic depiction of businesses, employment relationships, and workers as always either formal or informal. Instead, many are revealed to operate at varying levels of (in)formalisation. There are different degrees of declaration to, or registration with, the authorities for tax, social security, and labour law purposes. Many businesses register with some state authorities but not others, and fully registered enterprises often either do not declare varying proportions of their transactions or use informal workers to varying extents. Employment relationships similarly display differing degrees of (in)formalisation, ranging from wholly formal, through bogus self-employment and forms of quasi-formal employment at the formal end, to informal self-employment, unregistered employment, and paid favours at the informal end. Workers also undertake work across the formal and informal economies to differing extents. The chapter concludes by identifying the gaps in research and discussing the policy implications of a degrees of informalisation perspective.