Festschrift celebrating 25 years of PREALC. Includes a description of activities and statements by former directors and prominent persons associated with the programme.

Entries in English and various other languages.

The informal sector denotes the small-scale, unprotected, and loosely regulated activities and self-employment that proliferate in developing countries. This book is about the people who engage in informal activities and the people who study, interpret, intervene in, promote, or attempt to repress or regulate the sector. The authors bring together and evaluate for the first time competing theories, policies, and research findings on the informal sector, dealing with issues of power, ideology, and politics; basic research, applied research, program evaluation, and policymaking; exploitation, entrepreneurship, and opportunity; and poverty and the accumulation of wealth.

This volume assembles the major papers discussed at an international workshop on poverty monitoring to evaluate poverty indicators and poverty monitoring systems. It aims to focus more attention on poverty issues and improve policies for alleviating poverty.