IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/servic/v38y2018i11-12p856-874.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Extent and distribution of unregistered employment in the service industries in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Colin C. Williams
  • Ioana A. Horodnic

Abstract

Although a voluminous literature exists on the prevalence of the informal economy, few studies evaluate unregistered employment and none its prevalence and distribution across the service industries. This paper fills that gap. Reporting a 2015 European Working Conditions Survey based on 43,850 face-to-face interviews, the finding is that 7% (1 in 14) of service industry employees have no written contract of employment across the 35 European countries surveyed, although this varies from 34% in Cyprus to 1% in Sweden. A logistic regression analysis at the European level reveals significant associations between the propensity to work with no contract and various individual-, household- and firm-related characteristics, with unregistered employment more prevalent among women, younger people, those with fewer years in education, migrants, those living in households unable to make ends meet, those working in smaller businesses, and the hospitality and household service sectors. The theoretical and policy implications are then discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Colin C. Williams & Ioana A. Horodnic, 2018. "Extent and distribution of unregistered employment in the service industries in Europe," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(11-12), pages 856-874, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:servic:v:38:y:2018:i:11-12:p:856-874
    DOI: 10.1080/02642069.2018.1481209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02642069.2018.1481209
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/02642069.2018.1481209?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. C Williams, Colin, 2021. "Tackling Unregistered Employment In European Regions: Towards A Variegated Policy Approach," UTMS Journal of Economics, University of Tourism and Management, Skopje, Macedonia, vol. 12(2), pages 104-122.
    2. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    3. Ioana Alexandra Horodnic & Colin C. Williams & Oana Țugulea & Iuliana Claudia Stoian Bobâlcă, 2022. "Exploring the Demand-Side of the Informal Economy during the COVID-19 Restrictions: Lessons from Iași, Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-16, June.
    4. Cristian Incaltarau & Adrian V. Horodnic & Colin C. Williams & Liviu Oprea, 2021. "Institutional Determinants of Informal Payments for Health Services: An Exploratory Analysis across 117 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-19, November.
    5. Ioana Alexandra Horodnic & Colin C. Williams & Alexandru Maxim & Iuliana Claudia Stoian & Oana Carmen Țugulea & Adrian V. Horodnic, 2021. "Knowing and Unknowing Purchases of Undeclared Healthcare Goods and Services: The Role of Vertical and Horizontal Trust," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-14, November.
    6. Ioana Alexandra Horodnic & Colin C. Williams & Adriana Manolică & Cristina Teodora Roman & Gabriela Boldureanu, 2023. "Employer perspectives on undeclared work in the service sector: impacts and policy responses," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5-6), pages 358-377, April.
    7. Gashi Ardiana & Williams Colin C., 2019. "Evaluating the Prevalence and Distribution of Unregistered Employment in Kosovo: Lessons from a 2017 Survey," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 7-20, June.
    8. Ioana Alexandra HORODNIC & Colin C WILLIAMS & Rodica IANOLE-CÄ‚LIN, 2020. "Does higher cash-in-hand income motivate young people to engage in under-declared employment?," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 11, pages 48-69, December.

    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:taf:servic:v:38:y:2018:i:11-12:p:856-874. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FSIJ20 .

    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.