Colin C. Williams

Janice Windebank

This book challenges many of the popular myths surrounding informal economic activities, offering a radical reconceptualisation of their extent, growth, location and nature as well as evaluating the contrasting policy options.

Implications for Work and Welfare

Informal Employment in the Advanced Economies

Beginning with a review of the extent of undeclared work, the author discusses the discrepancies between regions and the potential impacts of the economic crisis, comparing the nature of the potential solutions available with those actually adopted. Th

Evaluating Tax Compliance and Behaviour Policies

Confronting the Shadow Economy

Anjula Gurtoo

The Routledge Handbook of Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies is a landmark volume that offers a uniquely comprehensive overview of entrepreneurship in developing countries. Addressing the multi-faceted nature of entrepreneurship, chapters explore a vast range of subject areas including education, economic policy, gender and the prevalence and nature of informal sector entrepreneurship. In order to understand the process of new venture creation in developing economies, what it means to be engaged in entrepreneurship in a developing world context must be addressed. This handbook does so by exploring the difficulties, risks and rewards associated with being an entrepreneur, and evaluates the impacts of the environment, relationships, performance and policy dynamics on small and entrepreneurial firms in developing economies. The handbook brings together a unique collection of over forty international researchers who are all actively engaged in studying entrepreneurship in a developing world context. The chapters offer concise but detailed perspectives and explanations on key aspects of the subject across a diverse array of developing economies, spanning Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In doing so, the chapters highlight the heterogeneity of entrepreneurship in developed economies, and contribute to the on-going policy discourses for managing and promoting entrepreneurial growth in the developing world. The book will be of great interest to scholars, students and policymakers in the areas of development economics, business and management, public policy and development studies.

Routledge Handbook of Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies

Enrico Marcelli

Pascale Joassart

Almost everyone residing in a developed nation knows someone who has engaged in paid work that is licit but not reported to the government (e.g., babysitting, gardening, construction, financial consulting). But while most acknowledge that such work is helpful to the individuals involved, and that informal work may enhance a sense of community, most scholars view it as a pre-modern form of exchange and something that disappears as capitalist markets expand globally. Both mainstream and heterodox economics typically assume that there is an inevitable shift towards the formalization of goods and services provisioning as societies become more "advanced" or "developed" (the "formalization thesis"). In these views, the existence of informal activities is a manifestation of backwardness and it is assumed that they will disappear as an economy becomes more "modern." This book challenges these conventional theses about the linear trajectory of informal work and economic development by arguing that informal work is not trivial for understanding modern capitalist economies, and that both mainstream and heterodox theories about the economy must be altered to address the role of informal work in relatively developed economies. This edited collection focuses on informal work in various developed nations, including Canada, the United States, and several in Europe. It will therefore be of interest to policymakers, as well as students and researchers in development studies, social policy, sociology, anthropology, public health, geography, economics and planning. Enrico Marcelli is Assistant Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University, USA. Colin C. Williams is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Sheffield, UK. Pascale Joassart is Assistant Professor of Geography at San Diego State University, USA.

Informal Work in Developed Nations

This volume provides a critique of the assumption of increasing commodification in the modern economy.

Mapping the Limits of Capitalism

A Commodified World

How will work be organised in the future? With its global perspective and critical approach, Re-Thinking the Future of Work provides not only an overview and examination of the array of competing visions, but also a radical rethink about the direction of change.

Directions and Visions

Re-Thinking the Future of Work

Friedrich Schneider

This book brings together two leading researchers in the field to provide a comprehensive overview of the shadow economy from a global perspective. Reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of different ways of measuring the informal sector, the authors evaluate its size and key determinants across the world. Williams and Schneider clearly establish the persistence and prevalence of the shadow economy, analysing the narrowness of existing policy approaches and explaining how these fail to address the key factors for its existence and may even exacerbate the problem. Proposing an alternative way forward, the authors argue that little headway will ever be made in reducing the shadow economy until there are changes not only to the character of formal institutions but also informal institutions (the values, beliefs and norms of citizens) through the introduction of macro-level structural changes. This timely, cutting-edge review of the global shadow economy and how it can be measured and tackled is an invaluable resource for postgraduate students, researchers and policy-makers, particularly those with a interest in tax evasion and informal labour.

The Prevalence of Informal Work and Labour

Measuring the Global Shadow Economy

Contents: 1. Introduction Part I: Entrepreneurship and the Underground Economy: The Missing Link 2. Studies of Entrepreneurship: The Omission of the Underground Economy 3. Studies of the Underground Economy: The Omission of Entrepreneurship Part II: The Extent and Nature of Underground Enterprise 4. Estimating the Size and Growth of Underground Enterprise 5. Portraits of Underground Enterprise 6. Explaining the Hidden Enterprise Culture Part III: What Should Be Done About the Hidden Enterprise Culture? Policy Options and their Implications 7. The Deterrence Option 8. The Laissez-Faire Option 9. The Enabling Option Part IV: Harnessing the Hidden Enterprise Culture 10. Helping Enterprises Start Up in a Legitimate Manner 11. Moving Underground Enterprise into the Mainstream: Supply-side Initiatives 12. Moving Underground Enterprise into the Mainstream: Demand-side Initiatives 13. Raising Awareness: Towards High Commitment Societies 14. Co-ordinating Government Thought and Action 15. Conclusions Bibliography Index

Colin C. Williams

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