Conceptualising & Defining The Informal Economy

Year: 2001
Authors: Women In Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)
Title: Addressing Informality, Reducing Poverty: A Policy Response to the Informal Economy
Format: Leaflet
Pages: 12
This WIEGO leaflet explores debates and theories around the informal economy. This is important as there are many outdated views on the informal economy and partly because of this informal workers remain outside the world of full-time, stable, and protected jobs.

Year: 2002
Authors: Chen, Martha; Jhabvala, Renana; and Lund, Frances
Title: Supporting Workers in the Informal Economy: A Policy Framework.
Format: Working Paper
Pages: 58
This report is one of a series of papers commissioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Task Force on the Informal Economy in preparation for the general discussion on the informal economy at the 90th International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva in June 2002.

Year: 2002
Authors: International Labour Organization
Title: Decent Work and the Informal Economy
Format: Conference Report
Pages: 133
This report describes what and who is in the informal economy and explains why the informal economy has been growing. It suggests the key elements of a comprehensive strategy to address the underlying causes and the symptoms of informality and informalisation.

Year: 2002
Authors: International Labour Organization
Title: Resolution Concerning Decent Work and the Informal Economy
Format: Resolution
Pages: 10
This resolution is the outcome of discussions on Decent work and the informal economy that took place at the 90th International Labour Conference (ILC) of the ILO Geneva in June 2002. It requires the ILO Governing Body’s consideration in planning future action on the informal economy.

Year: 2003
Authors: Chen, Martha
Title: Rethinking the Informal Economy
Format: Working Paper
Pages: 13
This paper examines the growth in informal employment across the developing world, and also in developed countries. It explores a new understanding of the informal economy, exploring its size, significance and its linkages with both poverty and growth.

Year: 2004
Authors: The World Commission on Social Dimensions of Globalization
Title: A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All
Format: Book
Pages: 190
This book is the result of the work of a group of diverse and contending actors, all of whom realised that action to build a fair and inclusive process of globalisation was urgent. Through a spirit of common purpose, it arrives at a shared understanding of globalisation and calls on an appropriate course for action.

Year: 2004
Authors: Horn, Pat
Title: Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment
Format: Paper presented at the EGDI and UNU-WIDER Conference, Unlocking Human Potential: Linking the Informal and Formal Sectors
Pages: 7
This paper looks at the policy and institutional reforms sought by workers in the informal economy and their organizations, from the perspective of street vendors.

Year: 2005
Authors: Avirgan, Tony; Bivens L. Josh & Gammage, Sarah (eds.)
Title: Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs: Labor Markets and Informal Work in Egypt , El Salvador , India , Russia , and South Africa .
Format: Book
Pages: 50
Through five country studies this book explores a number of commonalities in the size and makeup of the informal economy. It points to the large share of total employment from informal workers and its continued growth.

Year: 2006
Authors: War on Want (WoW)
Title: Forces for Change: Informal Economy Organisations in Africa
Format: Research Report
Pages: 104
This report provides insight into the organising and advocacy strategies of informal economy associations in Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. It also provides reasons for growth in the informal economy, and discusses the extent to which local and central government have attempted to address the needs of workers in the informal economy.

Year: 2007
Authors: Flynn, Don and Düvel, Frank
Title: Undocumented Migrants –Symptom, Not The Problem
Format: Policy Brief
Pages: 8
This policy brief reviews some of the thinking behind immigration policy responses, particularly in the countries of the global north, and considers what they are attempting to achieve. It considers whether existing policies are an adequate way to tackle the issues arising from global migration trends.

Year: 2007
Authors: Bicocchi, Luca
Title: Decent Work for Undocumented Migrants
Format: Policy Brief
Pages: 9
The aim of this policy brief is to identify the pressures involved in achieving decent work for migrants, building on the ILO Decent Work Agenda. It focuses on the vulnerability of migrant workers and on the important role that migrants can play in development.

Year: 2007
Authors: Oxfam International
Title: Signing Away The Future
Format: Briefing Paper
Pages: 46
This paper explores how the advance of trade and investment agreements between rich and poor countries threatens to deny developing countries a favourable foothold in the global economy. It argues that the advance of such agreements, negotiated largely behind closed doors, threatens to undermine the promise of trade and globalisation as forces to reduce poverty.