This article evaluates critically the neoliberal perspective that employment in the informal economy is a product of high taxes, public sector corruption and state interference in the free market and ...that reducing taxes, corruption and the regulatory burden via minimal state intervention is the remedy. Analysing the varying size of the informal economy across 36 developing and transition countries, little or no association is found with higher tax rates, greater levels of corruption and state interference. Instead, employment in the informal economy appears to reduce with higher levels of regulation and state intervention. The theoretical and policy implications are discussed.
The aim of this introductory article is to provide a critical overview of how informality has been defined and measured, together with selected findings on its extent and character, and a summary of ...competing views regarding its role in contemporary economies and how it can be tackled. The outcome is a set of conceptual frameworks for understanding both the burgeoning literature on informal employment and how each of the perspectives presented in this Special Issue contributes to the advancement of knowledge on this subject so as to set the scene for the articles that follow.
This paper reviews the policy options and measures available for tackling informal sector entrepreneurship. Four possible policy options are critically reviewed: doing nothing, eradicating informal ...entrepreneurship; eradicating formal entrepreneurship and formalizing informal entrepreneurship. Concluding that the latter is the most feasible option, policy measures for formalizing informal entrepreneurship are then reviewed. On the one hand, the range of policy measures that can be used by enforcement authorities (tax authorities, labor inspectorates and social security institutions) responsible for tackling informal entrepreneurship are evaluated. On the other hand, and to tackle the broader structural determinants of informal entrepreneurship, macro-level reforms are identified by evaluating critically the validity of the purported determinants proposed in the modernization, political economy, neo-liberal and neo-institutionalist theories. The outcome is an understanding of the full range of policy initiatives required by governments seeking to formalize informal sector entrepreneurship.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to a loss of revenues for enterprises and workers due to workplace closures and restrictions on movement to ‘flatten the curve’. In response, governments have made ...available temporary financial support to enterprises and workers affected. This paper evaluates a group currently excluded from this support, namely enterprises and workers in the undeclared economy, and a possible government policy response. To identify those involved, a 2019 Eurobarometer survey of undeclared work in Europe is reported. This reveals that one in every 132 European citizens relies wholly on undeclared earnings and the sectors and population groups involved. Given their reduced revenues and inability to access the temporary financial support, a voluntary disclosure initiative is recommended which brings undeclared enterprises and workers into the declared economy and onto the radar of state authorities by offering access to this temporary financial support if they disclose their previous undeclared work.
Informal entrepreneurs have been viewed variously as reluctant participants in such endeavors doing so out of economic necessity because of their exclusion from formal work and welfare (structuralist ...theory), or as willing entrepreneurs who voluntarily exit the formal economy either as a rational economic decision (neo-liberal theory) or as social actors who do not agree with the formal rules and regulations of the state (neo-institutional theory). The aim of this paper is to evaluate these competing theorizations of entrepreneurs’ motives for participating in the informal sector. Reporting evidence from a 2019 Eurobarometer survey involving 27,565 face-to-face interviews in 28 European countries, the finding is that five percent are reluctant participants, twenty percent are willing participants doing so as a rational economic decision, 21 percent are willing participants doing so because of their disagreement with the rules and 54 percent do so for a mixture of these motives. A logistic regression analysis reveals who is more likely to engage in informal entrepreneurship and who is significantly more likely to do so for each motive. The theoretical and policy implications are then discussed.
PurposeThe temporary enforced closure of businesses in response to the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in governments in Europe and beyond offering short-term financial support to the businesses ...and workers affected. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a group of workers unable to benefit from the short-term job retention schemes and support to the self-employed made available by governments, namely, those whose paid work is comprised wholly of undeclared work, and how this could be addressed.Design/methodology/approachTo identify those whose paid work is entirely undeclared, a Eurobarometer survey of undeclared work in Europe is reported conducted in September 2019, just prior to the pandemic, and involving 27,565 face-to-face interviews in 28 European countries.FindingsThe finding is that the paid work of one in every 132 European citizens is comprised wholly of undeclared work, and these workers are concentrated in non-essential businesses and activities severely affected by the lockdown. These workers whose paid work is comprised wholly of undeclared work are significantly more likely to be widowed or divorced/separated, living in households with three or more adults, without children and most of the time have financial difficulties in making ends meet.Practical implicationsGiven that businesses and workers in the undeclared economy are largely unable to work under lockdown, it is argued that providing access to short-term financial support, through a regularisation initiative based on voluntary disclosure, would not only provide the income support these workers need but also bring them out of the shadows and put them on the radar of the state authorities, thus transforming undeclared work into declared work.Originality/valueThis paper shows how in the current or repeat lockdowns, the short-term financial support made available by governments can be used to transform undeclared work into declared work.
When discussing the motivations of entrepreneurs, it has become commonplace to represent them dichotomously as either necessity or opportunity driven. This paper evaluates critically this dualistic ...depiction of entrepreneurs’ motives through an examination of the rationales of entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs living in a deprived urban neighbourhood of an English city, a group of entrepreneurs who have been conventionally depicted as largely driven by necessity into entrepreneurship in the absence of alternative means of livelihood. Reporting the results of a face-to-face questionnaire conducted in 2008 with 459 respondents and a further 18 follow-up in-depth interviews, the finding is that forcing individual entrepreneurs’ motives into one or other of these categories grossly over-simplifies their rationales which in lived practice are not only a mixture of both opportunity and necessity but also temporally fluid shifting most often from more necessity- to more opportunity-oriented rationales. The outcome is to reveal that the opportunity versus necessity dichotomy, which uses the perceptions of an entrepreneur’s originating condition as the defining feature of their motivations, is a misleading way of categorising types of entrepreneurship not only because motivations change over time but also because entrepreneurs are frequently driven by both necessity as well as opportunity factors. The result is a call to move beyond the conventional either/or depiction of opportunity versus necessity entrepreneurship and towards a richer, more nuanced and dynamic appreciation of entrepreneurs’ motivations.
This paper evaluates three waves of institutional theory that have variously explained participation in informal sector entrepreneurship. The first wave of institutional theory explains informal ...entrepreneurship as resulting from formal institutional failures. This second wave of theory explains it as resulting from an asymmetry between the laws and regulations of formal institutions and the unwritten socially shared rules of informal institutions. Finally, a third wave of theory as resulting from a lack of both vertical and horizontal trust has explained informal entrepreneurship. To evaluate these waves of institutional theory, this study reports evidence from a 2015 survey of businesses in Albania. This finds that 30 percent of turnover of Albanian businesses is under-reported and that this percentage is higher in smaller firms. In terms of the institutional failures that explain participation in informal entrepreneurship, the regression analysis reveals a strong association between annual under-reporting of turnover and the red tape involved in dealing with the tax administration and the frequent visits of tax inspectors. Moreover, it shows both vertical and horizontal trust are strongly associated with participation in informal entrepreneurship. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications.
We report germline missense mutations in ETV6 segregating with the dominant transmission of thrombocytopenia and hematologic malignancy in three unrelated kindreds, defining a new hereditary syndrome ...featuring thrombocytopenia with susceptibility to diverse hematologic neoplasms. Two variants, p.Arg369Gln and p.Arg399Cys, reside in the highly conserved ETS DNA-binding domain. The third variant, p.Pro214Leu, lies within the internal linker domain, which regulates DNA binding. These three amino acid sites correspond to hotspots for recurrent somatic mutation in malignancies. Functional studies show that the mutations abrogate DNA binding, alter subcellular localization, decrease transcriptional repression in a dominant-negative fashion and impair hematopoiesis. These familial genetic studies identify a central role for ETV6 in hematopoiesis and malignant transformation. The identification of germline predisposition to cytopenias and cancer informs the diagnosis and medical management of at-risk individuals.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
It is now recognized that many entrepreneurs operate wholly or partially in the informal economy. Harnessing this hidden enterprise culture by facilitating its formalization is therefore a ...potentially effective and innovative means of promoting economic development and growth. To start evaluating how this might be achieved, the aim of this paper is to understand entrepreneurs' motives for operating in the informal economy so as to identify the public policy interventions required to facilitate the formalization of this hidden enterprise culture. Reporting a survey of 51 nascent entrepreneurs in North Nottinghamshire, of which 43 were operating in the informal economy, the finding is that entrepreneurs' rationales for working informally differ according to both whether they operate wholly in the informal economy or have registered enterprises but trade partially off-the-books, as well as whether they view themselves as on a journey towards formalization or not. Different policy measures are therefore required to tackle each type of informal entrepreneurship. The outcome is a tentative call for a more nuanced and bespoke policy approach for tackling the different kinds of informal entrepreneurship that comprise the hidden enterprise culture.
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