Informal Employment in Advanced Economies: Implications for Work and Welfare

by Williams,Colin C.

• ISBN13: 9780415169592
• ISBN10: 0415169593
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-20
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Informal Employment in Advanced Economieschallenges many of the popular myths surrounding informal economic activities. This book tackles the popular belief that informal employment is growing throughout the advanced economies; it challenges the myth that this work is undertaken mostly by marginalized groups such as the unemployed, poor and immigrants; it evaluates the dominant view that we should replace informal with formal employment through enforcement of stringent laws and regulations. Examining policy options and their consequences, the authors show that conventional regulatory and deregulatory approaches merely exacerbate inequalities and a radical alternative solution, grounded in a "new economics" vision of the future of work and welfare is essential.

Author Biography

Colin C. Williams is a Senior Lecturer in Economic Geography at the University of Leicester. Jan Windebank is a Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Sheffield.

Table of Contents

List of tables and figure	ix	(1)
Acknowledgements	x
1 Introduction	1	(8)
PART I Examining informal employment: methods and theory	9	(38)
2 Methods of researching informal employment	11	(15)
3 Theorising informal employment	26	(21)
PART II Socio-spatial divisions in informal employment	47	(82)
4 Employment status and informal employment	49	(17)
5 Gender and informal employment	66	(16)
6 Ethnicity, immigration and informal employment	82	(16)
7 Spatial divisions in informal employment	98	(14)
8 Informal employment in developing nations	112	(17)
PART III What is to be done about informal employment? Evaluating the policy options	129	(53)
9 Regulating informal employment	131	(16)
10 Deregulating formal employment	147	(11)
11 Informal employment and the new economics	158	(15)
12 Conclusions: re-placing informal employment in the advanced economies	173	(9)
Notes	182	(6)
References	188	(25)
Index	213