The Informal Economy: A Threat to the Dream of Emergent African Economies?

La economía informal: ¿un desafío al sueño de la emergencia de las economías africanas?

Jean-Philippe Berrou and Thomas Eekhout
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Thomas Eekhout: GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Since the early 2000s, the African continent has been experiencing a cycle of strong economic growth, but the structural transformations needed for its economies to truly emerge have been slower in coming. Quality jobs remain scarce, and informal employment remains the norm in the labour market. The heterogeneity of this informal economy makes it complex to define and harder to be factored into public policy. The objectives of supporting and modernizing production units and of formalizing and bringing them into line with a certain number of standards and regulations are two complementary sides of any economic policy aimed at tackling the challenges that such informality poses for emerging economies.

Keywords: Africa; emergence; informal economy; microbusinesses; productivity; formalization; África; emergencia; economía informal; microempresas; productividad; formalización; Afrique; émergence; économie informelle; microentreprises; productivité; formalisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-08-21
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Published in Études internationales, 2019, 50 (1), pp.121-146. ⟨10.7202/1062819ar⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02276356

DOI: 10.7202/1062819ar

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