A widely held belief is that as economies become more “advanced,” there is a natural and inevitable shift of economic activity from the informal to the formal sphere (herein referred to as the “formalization of work” thesis). Hence, the existence of supposedly “traditional” informal...

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on undeclared work in the Western Balkans and the emergent challenges for state authorities, and policy responses, in the immediate and longer-term in relation to tackling undeclared work. To achieve this, section 2...

Williams C. C. (2005) Fostering community engagement and tackling undeclared work: the case for an evidence-based 'joined-up' public policy approach, Regional Studies 39 , 1145-1155. Examining two realms of public policy treated as unrelated by academics and policy-makers, namely fostering...

To understand undeclared work and how to tackle it, this report examines the prevalence of undeclared work in the construction sector followed by how it can be tackled. This includes an outline of the policy initiatives being pursued as a result of the TUWIC (Tackling undeclared work in the...

The use of personal connections to gain preferential access to goods and services and to circumvent formal procedures exists in all countries to varying degrees. In this paper, the aim is to critically evaluate the continuing widespread positive depiction of this practice as a form of friendly...

The aim of this article is to evaluate the prevalence and distribution in the European Union of a little discussed illegitimate employment practice whereby employers pay their formal employees both an official declared salary and an undeclared ‘envelope' wage so as to evade the full tax and...

Given that 60 per cent of the global workforce is in the informal sector, this article develops a typology that classifies economies according to, firstly, where different countries sit on a continuum of informalization and, secondly, the character of their informal sectors. This is then applied...

Over the past decade or so, two competing theoretical perspectives have arisen that explain participation in informal entrepreneurship as resulting from either too little or too much state intervention. To evaluate these competing explanations critically, the authors report on a 2012 UK survey...

To evaluate critically the policy options available for tackling the undeclared economy, this paper commences by evaluating the implications of four hypothetical policy choices, namely doing nothing, de-regulating the declared economy, eradicating the undeclared economy, or moving undeclared...

When seeking to harness entrepreneurship and enterprise culture, governments often seek to transfer policy measures successful in another country to their own. Until now however, governments have often lacked a practical evaluation framework for selecting policy measures and then appraising the...