Intense global competition and the advent of a raft of employment regulations (notably, the national minimum wage, or NMW) have placed the UK garment industry under severe pressure. The prospects for a significant segment of this sector -- ethnic-minority-owned businesses -- appear to be...

This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the 'regulatory shock' of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of 'informality'. It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to...

The social and economic institutions of a country provide a framework shaping the performance of individual firms. The introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in the UK provides a key illustration of the weakness of institutions and the ways in which they might be strengthened. Evidence...