Originally articulated in the 1970s,10 the concept of the informal economy has long been related to scholarship in the spheres of labour markets, macroeconomic policy and economic development, as well as more critically oriented examinations of the lives and livelihoods of the poor. [...] As Islam (2020) warns, ‘one runs the risk of impairing wages and working conditions in the quest to improve the business climate and reduce the size of the so-called shadow economy’ (see the discussion of ‘do no harm’ principles in relation to policy-making on the informal economy below). [...] The article opens with a summary of the first-ever global estimates of the size and composition of informal employment and the links between informal employment and poverty. [...] Well over half of the global workforce and the vast majority of the workforce in developing countries work in the informal economy, and in countries around the world new forms of informal employment are emerging. [...] Policy debates regarding regulation and formalisation of the informal economy This section examines the contours of the overarching policy debates regarding regulation of the informal economy in the Global South.
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- 96
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- United Kingdom