This paper investigates the determinants and dynamics of labour demand and specifically informal labour in Egypt's manufacturing sector, using nationally representative firm-level data from the 2020/21 Egyptian Industrial Firm Behavior Survey. Applying ordinary least squares and fractional logit...

The manuscript aims to assess the scale of shadow economic processes within the non-observed economy, focusing on the self-employment sector, which is insufficiently reflected in national statistics. The research methodology includes an analysis of the conceptual foundations of the shadow...

This study investigates tax evasion and the informal economy in Greece through an integrated research design that combines bibliometric analysis with large-scale survey data to examine both the structure of scholarly discourse and public perceptions of economic non-compliance. The analysis...

Background: Street food vending plays a central role in urban nutrition and informal employment across South Africa; however, its sustainability largely depends on consumer trust, which is strongly influenced by perceptions of hygiene. Objectives: This paper investigates customer expectations,...

The informal street food sector serves as a vital component of urban economies in South Africa, providing affordable nutrition and employment. However, this industry struggles to comply with required health and safety practices and standards. This study protocol outlines a mixed-methods...

This paper critically reviews the empirical and structural literature on the effects of income taxation on informal economic activity. Although labor taxation has been widely studied in relation to labor market outcomes, evidence linking income taxes to informality remains fragmented and uneven...

This paper examines how incorporating the informal economy influences the estimated benefits of international trade liberalization. Using a structural gravity framework, we quantify the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) while explicitly accounting for the presence of shadow (informal)...

Drawing on data from the Georgian Labour Force Survey (2021-2022), this paper provides a detailed statistical profile of informal employment in Georgia and discusses its key drivers. Around four workers out of ten were informally employed in Georgia in 2022. The large majority (69 per cent) of...

Large volumes of e-waste collected under formal schemes in high-income countries are still processed informally in developing ones, despite continuous policy efforts to reverse this trend. This paper shows that the persistence of informal e-waste processing is a consequence of how global waste...

Tax-benefit systems in Latin America have expanded alongside social protection, yet persistently high informality continues to constrain fiscal capacity and redistribution. This paper examines how tax policy changes affect formal employment in Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador over three periods...

Taking inspiration from the work of Douglass North, much institutional research attempts a distinction between 'formal' and 'informal' institutions. North often associated 'formal institutions' with rules enforced through a legal system. It is suggested here that this lead should be followed and...

We investigate labor exchange teams in rural communities, which are prevalent in many developing countries. We show theoretically that these teams are beneficial to employers, who can outsource the monitoring of workers. Team members are incentivized to exert a high level of effort because any...

This study investigates the impact of competition from informal or unregistered firms on the likelihood of formal manufacturing small and medium-size enterprises obtaining internationally recognized quality certificates. The sample includes 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, one of...

This study examines the emergence of international hidden entrepreneurs (IHEs) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through an institutional theory lens. An international hidden entrepreneur arises when local regulations impose high costs on an international entrepreneur operating as the legal head of...

This article reviews quantitative research on unions and collective bargaining in Sub-Saharan Africa. It discusses the consequences of unions for wages, inequality, economic performance and employer-employee relations. The article also highlights the role of unions in society, a role that goes...

How do minimum wages affect informality? We study the near-doubling of the real minimum wage from 2000 to 2009 in Brazil, where 46% of the workforce is informal. Using labor force surveys covering the informal sector, we show the minimum wage exhibits near full passthrough to informal employees...

How do minimum wages affect informality? We study the near-doubling of the real minimum wage from 2000 to 2009 in Brazil, where 46% of the workforce is informal. Using labor force surveys covering the informal sector, we show the minimum wage exhibits near full passthrough to informal employees...

Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) are often promoted as a means to regularise informal labour. Utilising unique Italian administrative data that links employer-employee records, daily voucher usage by firms, and randomly timed labour inspections (2014-2017), we demonstrate that FWAs can also...

This paper proposes a new sustainable development index incorporating informality measures for 36 European countries from 2010 to 2022. This index is estimated via a combination of national accounting, macroestimates of informality, and survey data through partial least squares (PLS) regression,...

This paper examines how changes in the minimum wage influence an economy with a substantial informal sector. To achieve this, we simulate the recent minimum wage increase in Latvia, providing a comprehensive assessment of its macroeconomic, sectoral, and distributional effects. This panoptic...

Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and World Bank data, we produce a novel estimation for the prevalence of informal entrepreneurship in 60 countries in the period 2006- 2022. Using a real option framework, we test the effect of business regulation, property rights protection, and the rule of...

This study presents a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis focused on female-led nanoenterprises in rural contexts, a marginal yet increasingly relevant category within enterprise research. Despite the growing attention to micro and small businesses, nanoenterprises-defined as...