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The Unofficial Economy in Africa

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  • Rafael La Porta
  • Andrei Shleifer

Abstract

We examine the productivity of informal firms (those that are not registered with the government) in 24 African countries using field work and World Bank firm level data. We find that productivity jumps sharply if we compare small formal firms to informal firms, and rises rapidly with the size of formal firms. Critically, informal firms appear to be qualitatively different than formal firms: they are smaller in size, produce to order, are run by managers with low human capital, do not have access to external finance, do not advertise their products, and sell to largely informal clients for cash. Informal firms thus occupy a very different market niche than formal firms do, and rarely become formal because there is very little demand for their products from the formal sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Rafael La Porta & Andrei Shleifer, 2011. "The Unofficial Economy in Africa," NBER Working Papers 16821, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16821
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    Cited by:

    1. Becker, Dennis, 2014. "Heterogeneous Firms and Informality: The Effects of Trade Liberalization on Labor Markets," Working Papers 180124, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    2. Marcus H Böhme & Rainer Thiele, 2014. "Informal–Formal Linkages and Informal Enterprise Performance in Urban West Africa," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(4), pages 473-489, September.
    3. Grimm, Michael & Knorringa, Peter & Lay, Jann, 2012. "Constrained Gazelles: High Potentials in West Africa’s Informal Economy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1352-1368.
    4. Xinshen Diao & Josaphat Kweka & Margaret McMillan, 2016. "Economic Transformation in Africa from the Bottom Up: Evidence from Tanzania," NBER Working Papers 22889, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Calza, Elisa & Goedhuys, Micheline, 2016. "Entrepreneurial heterogeneity and the design of entrepreneurship policies for economic growth and inclusive development," MERIT Working Papers 2016-043, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    6. Böhme, Marcus & Thiele, Rainer, 2012. "Is the Informal Sector Constrained from the Demand Side? Evidence for Six West African Capitals," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1369-1381.
    7. Ahmadou Aly Mbaye & Nancy Benjamin & Stephen Golub & Jean-Jacques Ekomie, 2014. "The Urban Informal Sector in Francophone Africa: Large Versus Small Enterprises in Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal," Working Papers 201405, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    8. Rawaa Harati, 2014. "Firms Informality: A Model and Empirical Evidence for Lebanon," Working Papers 883, Economic Research Forum, revised Dec 2014.
    9. Mendi, Pedro & Mudida, Robert, 2018. "The effect on innovation of beginning informal: Empirical evidence from Kenya," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 326-335.
    10. Diao, Xinshen & McMillan, Margaret, 2018. "Toward an Understanding of Economic Growth in Africa: A Reinterpretation of the Lewis Model," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 511-522.
    11. Stephen S. Golub & Janet Ceglowski & Ahmadou Aly Mbaye & Varun Prasad, 2018. "Can Africa compete with China in manufacturing? The role of relative unit labour costs," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(6), pages 1508-1528, June.
    12. Dennis Becker, 2018. "Heterogeneous firms and informality: the effects of trade liberalization on labour markets," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(1), pages 47-72.
    13. Pedro Mendi & Rodrigo Costamagna, 2015. "Managing Innovation under Competitive Pressure from Informal Producers Managing Innovation under Competitive Pressuire from Informal Producers," NCID Working Papers 10/2015, Navarra Center for International Development, University of Navarra.
    14. Bruhn, Miriam, 2013. "A tale of two species: Revisiting the effect of registration reform on informal business owners in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 275-283.
    15. Benhassine, Najy & McKenzie, David & Pouliquen, Victor & Santini, Massimiliano, 2018. "Does inducing informal firms to formalize make sense? Experimental evidence from Benin," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 1-14.
    16. Tilman Altenburg & Aimée Hampel-Milagrosa & Markus Loewe, 2017. "A Decade On: How Relevant is the Regulatory Environment for Micro and Small Enterprise Upgrading After All?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(2), pages 457-475, April.
    17. Mahieddine Adnan Ghecham, 2017. "The Impact of Informal Sector on Income Distribution: Could Concentration of Income be Explained by the Size of Informal Sector?," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(1), pages 594-600.
    18. Hampel-Milagrosa, Aimée & Loewe, Markus & Reeg, Caroline, 2015. "The Entrepreneur Makes a Difference: Evidence on MSE Upgrading Factors from Egypt, India, and the Philippines," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 118-130.
    19. Michael Danquah & Solomon Owusu, 2021. "Digital technology and productivity of informal enterprises: Empirical evidence from Nigeria," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-114, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth

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