Re-thinking the Nature of the Informal Economy: Some Lessons from Ukraine (original) (raw)
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Out Of The Margins: Re-Theorizing The Role Of The Informal Economy In Ukraine
The recognition that many inhabitants across the world rely on the informal economy for their livelihood has led to a refutation that this sphere is a leftover from pre-capitalism and the advent of a range of competing theorizations of the informal economy as either reinforcing the disparities produced by the formal economy, a chosen alternative to the formal economy or an involuntary survival practice for those decanted from the formal economy. To evaluate critically these rival theories, a study of the informal sector in four localities in Ukraine is reported. Finding that this is an involuntary survival practice but one that is ubiquitous, rather than confined to the marginalized, and is just as commonly used as the formal sector as a coping practice, the outcome is a call to bring the informal economy out of the margins and more centre-stage in future analyses of East-Central European economies.
Retheorizing the Nature of Informal Employment Some Lessons from Ukraine
2008
Abstract This article evaluates critically the contrasting theories of informal employment that variously read this sector as a leftover of pre-capitalism, a byproduct of a new emergent form of capitalism, a complement to formal employment or an alternative to the formal economy. Until now, a common tendency has been to either universally privilege one theorization over the others, or to depict each as appropriate in different regions of the world.
Journal of Economy and its Applications, 2012
To evaluate critically the competing explanations for the persistence of the informal economy that variously represent this sphere as a residue, by-product, alternative and/or complement to the formal economy, this paper reports a survey of livelihood practices in 313 Moscow households. The finding is that the majority of households primarily depend on informal work to secure their livelihood and that although each and every theorisation is wholly valid with regard to particular types of informal work and/or specific population groups, no one 23 articulation fully captures the diverse nature and multiple meanings of the informal economy in contemporary Moscow. The paper concludes by calling for informal work to move more centrestage in studies of post-socialist economic transition and for a wider re-evaluation of its multilayered and multifarious relationship to formal work in other contexts.
THE INFORMAL ECONOMY: THREAT AND OPPORTUNITY IN THE CITY
The informal economy is a constant, though only partially visible, undercurrent of social and economic life of European cities. Through its more romantic and touristic guises of street trading, markets and selling roses in restaurants, its seedier links with drugs and prostitution, and the economic toe-hold it provides for immigrants, young people and students, it links with the formal economy and with the forces of formal and informal social control. The history of research into the informal economy per se is, however, meagre. There is a plethora of research into its individual manifestations (focusing on prostitution, or drug cultures, or the economy of drugs, or sweat-shops, or illegal dumping of waste), but a lack of concentration on the informal economy itself, its threat to formal social and economic order, its links with formal and informal social control and cultures, and its particular form in different cities (given their populations, opportunities and cultures). There is even less comparative research, looking at the manifestations of the informal economy in different countries, and linking these to economic and social structures and cultures.
This article evaluates critically the competing explanations for the persistence and growth of informal employment in contemporary societies. These interpret the normality of informality either through a structuralist lens as arising out of " exclusion " from state benefits and the circuits of the modern economy or through a neo-liberal and/or post-structuralist lens as driven by the voluntary " exit " of workers out of formal institutions and into this alternative realm. To evaluate critically the validity of these competing explanations, this article reports a 2005/6 survey of informal employment in post-socialist Ukraine. Analyzing the results of 600 face-to-face interviews, the finding is that either/or explanations need to be transcended. Informal employment is neither universally driven by exclusion nor exit. Instead, some participate mostly due to exclusion, others mostly for exit rationales and some for a combination of the two, with different mixtures across different populations and types of informal employment. The outcome is a call to move towards more context-bound understandings of the pervasiveness of informality through
Beyond the formal/informal economy binary hierarchy
2007
Purpose–This paper aims to evaluate critically the conventional binary hierarchical representation of the formal/informal economy dualism which reads informal employment as a residual and marginal sphere that has largely negative consequences for economic development and needs to be deterred. Design/methodology/approach–To contest this depiction, the results of 600 household interviews conducted in Ukraine during 2005/2006 on the extent and nature of their informal employment are reported.
Reflecting on the results of the shadow economy survey, as conceptualized by Putnis and Sauka and implemented in Ukraine in 2019 for the first time, the goal of the current article is twofold. First, it offers an overview of the results for the years 2017 and 2018 and estimates the shadow economy in the country at 38.3% of GDP for 2017 and 38.5% for 2018. Second, it suggests possible advantages in the use of direct methods to estimate the level of the shadow economy in a country and explore the motives pushing entrepreneurs to remain in the shadow. The discussion is then framed to conceptualize the distinction between shadow economy and informality. We conclude by suggesting that a better understanding of the entangled relations lying behind the reasons to stay in the shadow can help us better address the issue and propose measures that could help bring business out of the shadow.
Everyday tactics and spaces of power: the role of informal economies in post-Soviet Ukraine
2008
Utilising de Certeau's concepts of daily life and his delineation between strategies and tactics as everyday practices this paper examines the role of informal economies in post-Ukraine. Based on 700 household surveys and seventy-five in-depth interviews, conducted in three Ukrainian cities, the paper argues that individuals/households have developed a wide range of tactics in response to the economic marginalisation the country has endured since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A Critical Evaluation of Romantic Depictions of the Informal Economy
Review of Social Economy, 2008
The conventional portrayal of the formal/informal economy dichotomy endows the formal economy with positive attributes and the informal economy with negative characteristics. Recently, this hierarchy has been inverted by scholars portraying the informal economy positively as a chosen alternative and path to progress. This paper evaluates critically this emergent representation. Reporting a study of the informal economy in the Ukraine conducted in 2005/2006, a diverse array of informal economic practices are identified that amongst some groups represent an involuntary means of livelihood but amongst others a chosen alternative and some of which seem beneficial and others deleterious to economic development and social cohesion. The outcome is a call to transcend simplistic binary hierarchical depictions of the formal economy as “bad”/informal economy as “good” (or the inverse) and towards a finer-grained and more nuanced understanding of the diverse forms of informal work and their varying consequences for economic development and social cohesion.
Explaining the Normality of Informal Employment in Ukraine: A Product of Exit or Exclusion?
2011
Abstract This article evaluates critically the competing explanations for the persistence and growth of informal employment in contemporary societies. These interpret the normality of informality either through a structuralist lens as arising out of “exclusion” from state benefits and the circuits of the modern economy or through a neo-liberal and/or post-structuralist lens as driven by the voluntary “exit” of workers out of formal institutions and into this alternative realm.