Revisiting the undeclared service economy as a dual labour market: lessons from a 2019 Eurobarometer survey

Colin Williams and Ayşegül Kayaoğlu

The Service Industries Journal, 2023, vol. 43, issue 13-14, 940-961

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to transcend the long-standing depiction that workers universally participate in the undeclared service economy out of necessity due to their exclusion from the formal labour market, by proposing and evaluating the existence of a dual undeclared labour market in the service sector composed of an ‘upper-tier’ of voluntary exit-driven and ‘lower-tier’ of exclusion-driven undeclared service sector workers. Reporting a 2019 Eurobarometer survey conducted in 28 European countries, a dual labour market in the undeclared service economy is validated. Three-quarters of undeclared service workers report either purely exit- or exclusion driven rationales. For every lower tier undeclared service worker, 6.7 are in the upper tier, with those in the voluntary exit-driven upper tier more likely to be older, self-employed, having spent time in full-time education, and to be living in Western Europe and Nordic countries. The theoretical and policy implications are then discussed.

Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:servic:v:43:y:2023:i:13-14:p:940-961

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DOI: 10.1080/02642069.2021.1932830

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The Service Industries Journal is currently edited by Eileen Bridges, Professor Domingo Ribeiro, Ronald Goldsmith, Barry Howcroft and Youjae Yi

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