A large percentage of workers and firms operate in the informal economy, outside the line of sight of governments in emerging market and developing economies. This may hold back the recovery in these economies from the deep recessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic--unless governments adopt a broad set of policies to address the challenges of widespread informality. This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent of informality and its implications for a durable economic recovery and for long-term development. It finds that pervasive informality is associated with significantly weaker economic outcomes--including lower government resources to combat recessions, lower per capita incomes, greater poverty, less financial development, and weaker investment and productivity.

Informal relations have been one of the major research topics of the social sciences since the 1990s. In order to allow for meaningful comparisons between different combinations of the positive and negative effects of informal relations on democratic representation, this book focuses on post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe as a particular region where formal democratic rules have been established, but competing informal rules are still strong. A broad spectrum of related analytical concepts is discussed from different perspectives and from different academic disciplines, then empirical cases of the relationship between informal relations and democratic representation are analyzed. The contributions span the whole continuum, as we perceive it, from civil society networks seen as supporting democratic representation to the perversion of democratic representation through political corruption. The final part of the book takes a closer look at corruption through four case studies from Russia.

This Brief provides a cutting-edge evaluation of the application of digital technologies to tackle the informal economy. Employing institutional theory to explain the informal economy, this book reveals that the informal economy arises when formal institutional failings trigger a gap between the formal rules of the game and social norms. Chapters outline how use of digital technologies by public authorities, such as tax, social security and labor authorities, can alter social norms so that they accord with the formal rules of the game and generate a formalization of the informal economy. Setting out the e-government tools that can improve the relationship between businesses, employers, workers and citizens, and government, this book will be essential reading for academics and advanced students studying development economics, labor economics, public economics, behavioral economics, economic sociology and institutional economics as well as for government policymakers working in related fields.

This Modern Guide presents a comprehensive synthesis of contemporary thought on the informal economy, which, as the author demonstrates – far from being a peripheral feature of the global economy – is a system in which the majority of the global workforce are employed and which has pervasive detrimental effects. Formalising it is therefore a priority for most governments.

This book presents new data to give an overview of shadow economies from OECD countries and propose solutions to prevent illicit work.

The changing dynamics in the European region and beyond, the unfolding political-economic challenges across the European Union, and the rising global power of emerging economic powers require knowledge, skills, and methodological platforms inducing strategies and operations in the new and ever-changing business landscape. Geo-Regional Competitiveness in Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic Countries, and Russia seeks to address East Central Europe’s (ECE), the Baltics’, and Russia’s increasingly important roles as emerging markets and competitive economic players in the European region. This premier reference work is designated for scholars, professionals, government agencies, think tanks, and other individuals, organizations, and institutions interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the geo-regional strategic business dynamics and landscape involving ECE, the Baltics, and Russia.

For a post-human hitchhiker, human life – with its anxiety, ageing, illness and constant need for problem-solving – may look unviable. Yet, for humans, the life struggle is softened by human touch, human emotion and human cooperation. The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 3 continues the journey of the two previous volumes into the world’s open secrets, unwritten rules and hidden practices. It focuses on issues of emotional ambivalence and pressures of the digital age. The informal practices presented in this volume demonstrate the urgency of alleviating tensions between continuity and all-too-rapid change and the need to tackle the central problem of modern societies – uncertainty. The volume takes a reader on a ‘biographical’ journey through elusive, taken-for-granted or banal ways of getting things done from over 70 countries and world regions. It offers innovative understanding of the significance of fringes, and challenges the assumption that informality is associated exclusively with poverty, underdevelopment, the Global South, oppressive regimes or the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It also maps the patterns of informality around the globe; identifies specific informal practices in a context-sensitive way; and documents their ambivalent impact on people engaged in problem-solving, on societies in which these problems arise, and on humanity overall. Praise for The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 3 ‘This book tells a story of human cooperation. It is not the narrative you’ll find in books teaching you how to solve problems. It is an assemblage of something much more endemic, fundamentally human, and much more pervasive than we tend to think of informality. It involves money and power, but also the alternative currencies of gaining advantage or gaming the system.’ Bruce Schneier, author of A Hacker's Mind ‘Alena Ledeneva’s latest database of rule bending is a goldmine for documentary makers and storytellers. Entries from 70 countries, covering a human lifespan from Chinese “anchor babies” to funeral feasts in Azerbaijan, offer remarkable insights into the way the world really works.’ Lucy Ash, journalist