The Silent Revolution: The Informal Sector in Five Asian and Near Eastern Countrie. Edited By A. Lawrence Chickering and Mohamed Salahdine. An International Center for Economic Growth Publication. San Francisco: ICS Press, 1991.

1993 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles K. Mann
2010 ◽  
pp. 39-55
Author(s):  
M. Ellman

This article is an overview of the contribution made by economic Sovietology to mainstream economics. The long debate about the universal applicability of mainstream economics is reconsidered in the light of the Soviet experience. Information is provided on the contribution of the study of the Soviet economy to fields as diverse as the measurement of economic growth, institutional economics, economic administration, the economics of property rights, the economics of the informal sector, the economics of famines, the Austrian critique of general equilibrium theory, and incentives.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Esaku

PurposeIn this paper, the authors examine how economic growth shapes the shadow economy in the long and short run.Design/methodology/approachUsing annual time series data from Uganda, drawn from various data sources, covering the period from 1991 to 2017, the authors apply the ARDL modeling approach to cointegration.FindingsThis paper finds that an increase in economic growth significantly reduces the size of the shadow economy, in both the long and short run, all else equal. However, the long-run relationship between the shadow economy and growth is non-linear. The results suggest that the rise of the shadow economy could partially be attributed to the slow and sluggish rate of economic growth.Practical implicationsThese findings imply that addressing informality requires addressing underlying factors of underdevelopment since improvements in economic growth also translate into a reduction in the size of the shadow economy in the short and long run.Originality/valueThese findings reveal that the low level of economic growth is an issue because it spurs informal sector activities in the short run. However, as the economy improves, it becomes an incentive for individuals to operate in the informal sector. Additionally, tackling shadow activities in the short run could help improve tax revenue collection.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Yelwa ◽  
A. J. Adam

<p><em>The paper examines the impact of informal sector activities on economic growth in Nigeria between 1980-2014. The contributions of informal sector activities to the growth of Nigerian economy cannot be over emphasized. It is the source of livelihood to the majority of poor, unskilled, socially marginalized and female population and is the vital means of survival for the people in the country lacking proper safety nets and unemployment insurance especially those lacking skills from formal sector jobs. The relationship between informality and economic growth is not clear because the sector is not regulated by the law also there is no concrete evidence that this sector enhances growth because the sector’s contributions to growth is not measured. The use of endogenous growth model becomes relevant in this study. The theory emphasizes the role of production on the long-run via a higher rate of technological innovation. The variables that were tested are official economy nominal GDP, informal economy nominal GDP, currency in circulation, demand deposit, ratio of currency in circulation to demand deposit, narrow money, informal economy as percentage of official economy. ADF test was conducted to establish that the data series of all variables are stationary t levels. Having established the stationarity test we also, conducted causality test of the response of official economy nominal GDP to informal economy nominal GDP. In conclusion, the impact of informal sector economy on economic growth in Nigeria is quiet commendable. Even though, the relationship between informality and economic growth is not straight. The paper recommended thus, the need for the government to integrate the activities of the informal economy into formal sector and size of the sector is measured and regulated because their roles are commendable. As it will improve tax collection and enhance fiscal policy.</em></p>


Author(s):  
Alex Schafran

Silicon Valley as we know it emerged in part from encounters between the technology of the valley and the Bohemian culture of San Francisco. This San Francisco–Silicon Valley nexus would produce one of the most dynamic economic growth stories any region has ever seen. Over the course of the latter part of the twentieth century, this encounter eventually turned both San Francisco and Silicon Valley into massive jobs engines. This chapter examines the spaces where this engine was most powerful, the places that drove the economic cart which attracted so many new residents and so much investment. These are also the places that largely did either very little or not enough to house the people who held these jobs. They did even less for those who had suffered under the segregated conditions of the earlier era.


1969 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond E. Wolfinger ◽  
Fred I. Greenstein

One of the more fertile sources of data for systematic comparative political studies is in the regional differences that abound within political systems. When such differences are large and politically significant, explaining them becomes intriguing and important, especially if their causes cannot be found in the more familiar classes of socioeconomic variables.Our purpose here is to present a preliminary analysis of a widely discussed intrasystem political difference—that between Northern and Southern California. This regional split has received particularly wide attention since the 1964 Republican primary, when Senator Goldwater's landslide majority in the South overcame his resounding defeat in the San Francisco Bay Area and insured his presidential nomination. Attempts to explain this pronounced regional variation have generated propositions about the political consequences of those social and economic conditions thought to be characteristic of Southern California. Since that area's most striking feature is its continuous rapid growth and economic development, many writers have been led to speculate that anxieties resulting from such changes lead to ultraconservative political preferences. These propositions are of considerable interest to students of politics, since neither economic growth nor its presumed attitudinal consequence is unique to Southern California, nor, for that matter, to the United States. AVe will examine various explanations for California's regional variation, with special emphasis on propositions about economic growth. Our data are from the 1960 Census, 1964 and 1968 election returns, and a series of statewide sample surveys conducted during the 1964 campaigns.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael La Porta ◽  
Andrei Shleifer

In developing countries, informal firms account for up to half of economic activity. They provide livelihood for billions of people. Yet their role in economic development remains controversial with some viewing informality as pent-up potential and others viewing informality as a parasitic organizational form that hinders economic growth. In this paper, we assess these perspectives. We argue that the evidence is most consistent with dual models, in which informality arises out of poverty and the informal and formal sectors are very different. It seems that informal firms have low productivity and produce low-quality products; and, consequently, they do not pose a threat to the formal firms. Economic growth comes from the formal sector, that is, from firms run by educated entrepreneurs and exhibiting much higher levels of productivity. The expansion of the formal sector leads to the decline of the informal sector in relative and eventually absolute terms. A few informal firms convert to formality, but more generally they disappear because they cannot compete with the much more-productive formal firms.


2016 ◽  
Vol 07 (12) ◽  
pp. 1478-1497
Author(s):  
Bismark Ameyaw ◽  
Amos Oppong ◽  
Lucille Aba Abruquah ◽  
Eric Ashalley

Author(s):  
Phan Anh Tu

This chapter argues that while informal entrepreneurship is important in transition economies (for economic growth, job generation, and welfare improvement), it opens informal entrepreneurs to bribery requests because of their non-official status. With empirical evidence from Vietnam, this chapter demonstrates that the likelihood of bribery is determined by a firm's attributes. Building on a unique dataset of 352 entrepreneurs in informal firms in Vietnam, this chapter is able to quantify bribery at the firm level and measure key concepts. The empirical findings confirm the key assumption that entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector of the same country may vary in their propensity to pay bribes due to pressure resulting from (a) factors that are specific to the firms, or (b) factors specific to their perceptions of the environment.


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