Informal Labour and Credit Markets: A Survey

Nicoletta Batini, Young-Bae Kim (), Paul Levine () and Emanuela Lotti ()

No 609, School of Economics Discussion Papers from School of Economics, University of Surrey

Abstract: This paper reviews the literature on the informal economy, focusing first on empirical findings and then on existing approaches to modelling informality within both partial and general equilibrium environments. We concentrate on labour and credit markets, since these tend to be most affected by informality. The phenomenon is particularly important in emerging and other developing economies, given their high degrees of informal labour and financial services and the implications these have for the effectiveness of macroeconomic policy. We emphasize the need for dynamic general equilibrium (DGE) and ultimately dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models for a full understanding of the costs, benefits and policy implications of informality. The survey shows that the literature on informality is quite patchy, and that there are several unexplored areas left for research. JEL Classification: J65, E24, E26, E32

Keywords: Informal economy; labour market; search-matching models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E37 E52 E58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2009-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-dge and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Informal Labour and Credit Markets: A Survey (2011)
Working Paper: Informal Labour and Credit Markets: A Survey (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sur:surrec:0609

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