We develop a model where formal sector firms pay tax and informal ones do not, but informal firms risk incurring the penalty associated with non-compliance. Workers may enter self-employment or search for jobs as employees. Workers with higher managerial skills will run larger firms while...

We consider an economy with two groups of individuals, rich and poor. A central authority can either directly redistribute income to the poor, or allow for some degree of informality in economic activities by not enforcing property rights. The optimal degree of informality depends upon the...

We develop a model where workers may enter self-employment or search for jobs as employees and where there is heterogeneity across workers' managerial ability. Workers with higher skills will manage larger firms while workers with low managerial ability will run smaller firms and will be in...