Informal Employment in Advanced Economies: Implications for Work and Welfare

by Williams,Colin C.

• ISBN13: 9780415169608
• ISBN10: 0415169607
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• 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	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
Examining informal employment: methods and theory	p. 9
Methods of researching informal employment	p. 11
Theorising informal employment	p. 26
Socio-spatial divisions in informal employment	p. 47
Employment status and informal employment	p. 49
Gender and informal employment	p. 66
Ethnicity, immigration and informal employment	p. 82
Spatial divisions in informal employment	p. 98
Informal employment in developing nations	p. 112
What is to be done about informal employment? Evaluating the policy options	p. 129
Regulating informal employment	p. 131
Deregulating formal employment	p. 147
Informal employment and the new economics	p. 158
Conclusions: re-placing informal employment in the advanced economies	p. 173
Notes	p. 182
References	p. 188
Index	p. 213
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