This paper evaluates critically the validity of the competing conceptualizations of informal employment that variously read such work as a leftover of a previous mode of production, a by-product of, alternative or complement to formal employment. Until now, the common tendency has been for...

PurposeThis paper evaluates critically the assumption that the main reason for acquiring domestic services from the off-the-books economy is to save money. MethodologyData is reported from an Internet survey of 5,500 people living in households with one or more members in employment in the city...

PurposeUntil now, in the absence of direct survey data, economists have had to rely on indirect methods that employ proxy indicators to evaluate the size of the shadow economy. In this paper, however, the results of the first direct survey of business perceptions of the magnitude of the shadow...

This paper evaluates critically the contrasting theories of the nature of the shadow economy that variously read this sector as a leftover of pre-capitalism, a by-product of a new emergent form of capitalism, a complement to formal employment or an alternative to the formal economy. Until now,...

Despite the growing recognition that many businesses start-up trading on a partially or wholly off-the-books basis, there has been little investigation of whether the prevalence and character of this hidden enterprise culture varies spatially. The aim of this paper is to start to fill that gap....

Since the turn of the millennium, a small but growing stream of the entrepreneurship literature has drawn attention to how a large proportion of entrepreneurs start-up their enterprises operating in the hidden economy on a wholly or partially off-the-books basis. This paper evaluates critically...

We examine the crime-unemployment relationship in 26 EU countries and the possibility of potential asymmetries developing in the presence of labour market policies and/or that of certain structural characteristics. We find that the, otherwise well-established, relationship is strongly moderated...

Whereas the impact of Brexit on Anglophone Africa was a major issue in the controversial British discussions on the pros and cons of Brexit, possible repercussions on French-speaking Africa have been rarely mentioned up to now. Yet, the range of possible Brexit effect is impressive, including...

Paid informal work has been conventionally viewed as a barrier to social inclusion. Conceived as exploitative low-paid employment conducted by marginalised populations for unscrupulous employers, such work has been considered to prevent social inclusion, in that it denies employees access to the...