The Informal Economy in South Africa: Debates, Issues and Policies

Imraan Valodia and Richard Devey

Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, 2012, vol. 6, issue 2, 133-157

Abstract: The idea of dualism in the South African economy, characterised by a ‘first’ and ‘second’ economy, has come to dominate government thinking in recent years. Using the panel component of the Labour Force Survey (LFS), we explore linkages between the formal and informal economy. Our analysis suggests that there is a high level of interaction between formal and informal work at the lower end of the labour market. At the household level too, access to stable employment in the formal economy is associated with higher levels of earning in the informal economy. Our findings have implications for poverty analysis in South Africa. Policy which views poverty as being located outside the mainstream of the economy—in the so-called ‘second economy’—is misleading. JEL Classifications : O17, O55

Keywords: Formal; Informal; Employment; Households; Poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/097380101200600203 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:mareco:v:6:y:2012:i:2:p:133-157

DOI: 10.1177/097380101200600203

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research from National Council of Applied Economic Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().