IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v493y1987i1p137-153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Political Economy of Informal Economies

Author

Listed:
  • STUART HENRY

Abstract

This article considers the mutual interrelationship between informal economies and the wider political economy of capitalism. Four dimensions are discussed: (1) the generation of informal economies as a paradoxical outcome of distinguishing them from capitalism; (2) the support given by capitalism and reciprocated by informal economies that enables each to gain strength from their similarities; (3) the opposition to informal economies that is reflected back on the wider economy; and (4) the destruction capitalism inflicts as it attempts to colonize and co-opt informal economies and the simultaneous transformation of capitalism that occurs with their absorption into the wider structure. The article argues that as a result of these complex interrelations, the development of, and intervention in, informal economies is neither simple nor linear. Failure to take these relations into account can lead to policy and its implementation that produce many unforeseen outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Stuart Henry, 1987. "The Political Economy of Informal Economies," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 493(1), pages 137-153, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:493:y:1987:i:1:p:137-153
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716287493001010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716287493001010
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716287493001010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carter, Michael, 1984. "Issues in the Hidden Economy-A Survey," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 60(170), pages 209-221, September.
    2. Mazumdar, Dipak, 1976. "The urban informal sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 4(8), pages 655-679, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sabine Bernabe, 2002. "Informal Employment in Countries in Transition: A conceptual framework," CASE Papers case56, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    2. Mathan Satchi & Jonathan Temple, 2006. "Growth and labour markets in developing countries," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 06/581, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    3. Hartmut Lehmann, 2015. "Informal Employment in Transition Countries: Empirical Evidence and Research Challenges," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 57(1), pages 1-30, March.
    4. Omar Babou & Philippe Adair, 2016. "L’économie informelle à Tizi-Ouzou (Algérie) : déterminants, segmentation et mobilité in Cahiers de l'Association Tiers-Monde n°31, pp. 141-150," Post-Print hal-01683930, HAL.
    5. Orviska, Marta & Caplanova, Anetta & Medved, Jozef & Hudson, John, 2006. "A cross-section approach to measuring the shadow economy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 713-724, October.
    6. Mariano Bosch & William Maloney, 2006. "Gross Worker Flows in the Presence of Informal Labor Markets. The Mexican Experience 1987-2002," CEP Discussion Papers dp0753, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    7. Jaleel Ahmad, 2000. "Factor Market Dualism, Small Scale Industry and Labor Absorption," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 111-126, June.
    8. Pius B. Simon, 1998. "Informal Responses to Crises of Urban Employment: An Investigation into the Structure and Relevance of Small-scale Informal Retailing in Kaduna, Nigeria," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 547-557, August.
    9. Patrick J. McEwan, 1995. "Heterogeneidad en el sector informal urbano de Colombia," Coyuntura Social 13220, Fedesarrollo.
    10. Swaminathan, M., 1991. "Understanding the "Informal Sector": A Survey," Research Paper 95, World Institute for Development Economics Research.
    11. Tansel, Aysit & Kan, Elif Oznur, 2011. "Labor mobility across the formal/informal divide in Turkey: evidence from individual level data," MPRA Paper 35672, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Oyvat, Cem, 2016. "Agrarian Structures, Urbanization, and Inequality," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 207-230.
    13. Busso, Matias & Chauvin, Juan Pablo & Herrera L., Nicolás, 2021. "Rural-urban migration at high urbanization levels," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    14. Ceyhun Elgin, 2020. "Shadow Economies Around the World: Evidence from Metropolitan Areas," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 301-322, April.
    15. Mwinuka JB., 1996. "Improvement of the apprenticeship system in the informal sector in Tanzania : working paper," ILO Working Papers 993162113402676, International Labour Organization.
    16. Aysit Tansel & Elif Öznur Acar, 2017. "Labor mobility across the formal/informal divide in Turkey: Evidence from individual-level data," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 617-635, September.
    17. Henley, Andrew & Arabsheibani, G. Reza & Carneiro, Francisco G., 2009. "On Defining and Measuring the Informal Sector: Evidence from Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 992-1003, May.
    18. Panda, Bhagirathi, 2000. "Urban Informal Manufacturing Sector In Orissa - A Case Study Of Cuttack City," MPRA Paper 5818, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Ozan Hatipoglu & Gulenay Ozbek, 2011. "On the political economy of the informal sector and income redistribution," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 69-87, August.
    20. Eckhard Siggel, 2010. "The Indian informal sector: The impact of globalization and reform," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 149(1), pages 93-105, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:493:y:1987:i:1:p:137-153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.