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Informal Sector and Economic Growth: The Supply of Credit Channel

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  • Baptiste Massenot
  • Stéphane Straub

Abstract

A standard view holds that removing barriers to entry and improving judicial enforcement would reduce informality and boost investment and growth. We show, however, that this conclusion may not hold in countries with a concentrated banking sector or with low financial openness. When the formal sector becomes larger in those countries, more entrepreneurs become creditworthy and the higher pressure in the credit market increases the interest rate. This reduces future capital accumulation. We show some empirical evidence consistent with these predictions.

Suggested Citation

  • Baptiste Massenot & Stéphane Straub, 2011. "Informal Sector and Economic Growth: The Supply of Credit Channel," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 12.03, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    • Handle: RePEc:lau:crdeep:12.03
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    Cited by:

    1. Serdar Birinci, 2013. "Trade openness, growth, and informality: Panel VAR evidence from OECD economies," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(1), pages 694-705.
    2. Elgin, Ceyhun & Uras, Burak R., 2014. "Homeownership, informality and the transmission of monetary policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 160-168.
    3. Ceyhun Elgin & Burak Uras, 2013. "Is informality a barrier to financial development?," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 309-331, August.
    4. Ceyhun Elgin & Ferda Erturk, 2016. "Is Informality a Barrier to Convergence?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(4), pages 2556-2568.
    5. Nihal Bayraktar & Hippolyte Fofack, 2018. "A Model for Gender Analysis with Informal Production and Financial Sectors," Journal of African Development, African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), vol. 20(2), pages 1-20.
    6. Salim Ergene, 2015. "Growth, inflation, interest rate and informality: Panel VAR evidence from OECD Economies," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 750-763.
    7. Belal Fallah, 2014. "The Pros and Cons of Formalizing Informal MSES in the Palestinian Economy," Working Papers 893, Economic Research Forum, revised Dec 2014.
    8. Kerem Cantekin & Ceyhun Elgin, 2017. "Extent And Growth Effects Of Informality In Turkey: Evidence From A Firm-Level Survey," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(05), pages 1017-1037, December.
    9. Ada Aliaj & Rovena Vangjel, 2023. "Financial Development and Its Impact on the Shadow Economy in Albania," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 12, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    informal sector; barriers to entry; credit market; enforcement; financial openness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

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