Search

This paper examines how government investments in infrastructure affect new firms’ creation and location. We analyze two scenarios. With an optimizing government, optimal location is a function of government expenditures in infrastructure. With a passive government, optimal location is independent of government expenditures in infrastructure. Productivity effects in the formal sector, as contrasted with informal sector, yield a greater impact on the formation of capital stock, and shadow price of location. The impact of fees on informal firms and taxes of formal firms affect output and welfare. With an optimizing government, entrepreneurs in the formal sector will have higher output and welfare; with a passive government, it is likely that the welfare of informal entrepreneurs is smaller than the one of formal entrepreneurs.

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries. Tourism is able to move the economy forward at the micro-level such as encouraging the informal sector and local potential while at the macro level it can increase currency transactions. In various countries, the tourism sector is able to increase domestic and foreign demands as well as to encourage transportation, hospitality, and manufacturing industries. This study examines the effect of institutional indicators on tourism in ASEAN countries during 2000-2018 under dynamic panel estimation. The number of observations was about 180, namely: time series from 2000-2018 and cross-section of 10 countries. ASEAN as one of the destinations in the world requires an increase in institutional quality to be able to compete and provide world-class tourism services. The six institutional indicators were employed such as voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. Moreover, the dynamic panel estimation was expressed by Pooled OLS and REM estimations. Interestingly, the findings show that political stability compromises the number of tourist arrivals while government effectiveness can stimulate tourist arrivals. Similarly, GDP per capita can hinder the number of tourist arrivals, while the exchange rate leads increasing of tourism arrivals. Thus, the governments in ASEAN countries can promote and cooperate together to develop tourism in the regional level. The GDP per capita of ASEAN countries should be increased, and the level of exchange rate can be maintained at a stable range. Besides, the governments should also improve the quality of institutions.

The lockdown during the first phase of COVID-19 pandemic in India triggered an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Labourers in the informal sector lost their jobs overnight and were stuck at their work places. The present study examines the risk of COVID-19 transmission among stranded migrant labourers and their livelihood challenges during the lockdown. A telephonic survey was conducted during the lockdown of first wave of COVID-19 pandemic to collect information from the stranded migrant labourers. The non-probability snowball sampling technique and structured questionnaire were used to draw the sample. Simple frequency distribution and standard statistical methods were used to accomplish the study objectives. The factors of COVID-19 transmission such as poor housing, co-morbidities, poor practice of WASH and COVID-19 precautions were significantly high among the migrant labourers. The lockdown created livelihood crisis among them. For instance, ration shortage (86%), financial distress (82%), reduction of wages (13%), job loss (86%) and anxiety for COVID-19 infection (81%) were often seen. Many of the labourers did not receive any ration kits (30%) and financial assistance (86%) during lockdown. The governmental assistance to overcome the stranded migrant labourers' challenges during lockdown was less than desirable. India needs to frame a sustainable and effective policy for social security for labourers, particularly in emergency situations.

The vast and rapid dynamism in economic policies towards improved and speedy policy implementation aided by unrelenting technology capabilities have also transitioned into the tax administration economy. E-taxation is steadily taking the place of manual taxation. Electronic tax system expresses fast, convenient, cost efficient, organized and transparent taxation rather than tasking, time consuming and tax officials-tax payers’ corruption ridden operations of manual taxation. This article, engaging exploratory-qualitative research technique, examines multinational peculiarities of automated taxation to draw lessons from issues emanating from implementation, adoption and compliance. It further shed light on challenges of migrating e-tax collection to informal economies in Nigeria. From the extant review of cross-cultural literatures, it was revealed that developed and developing countries are gradually embracing and making constant efforts towards transitioning into a more established e-tax system. Countries like USA, China, Canada, Japan, Russia, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Kenya already joined in adopting etaxation. The paper argued that inadequate database of taxable individuals; expensive internet infrastructure, cyberspace crime and limited awareness among tax payers are drawing back implementation of e-taxation in the Nigerian informal economies, and subsequently suggests practicable policy options.

Taxation is a fundamental tool for revenue generation, economy building and sustainability, reducing market externalities, regulating trade, stimulating representation and achieving tax justice as well as building state accountability and responsiveness. The informal sector in developing countries has been considered a hindrance to effective domestic revenue mobilisation, hence the rejuvenated focus to bring the sector into the tax baskets. Through a critical literature review, this study sought to identify the varying motivations tabled by the various stakeholders (policymakers, scholars and tax administrators) in literature on the need to administer tax on this sector and to strengthen enforcement and to evaluate the plausibility of these motives critically. Literature search was done through Google scholar and this was also aided by snowballing. The motives were aggregated into five major groups: the magnitude of the sector and revenue implications, growth motive, the governance gains, equity considerations and the boosting of tax morale and compliance in the formal sector. This study, therefore, conducted a profound evaluative analysis of literature on these motivations, pinpointing any voids that future research could address and accordingly sought to contribute to the guidance offered to policymakers on how to improve IS taxation. In order to balance the mobilisation of revenue needs and the sector’s contribution to other government objectives such as those outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Goals 1, 8 and 10 on poverty, decent work and economic growth, and reduced inequalities, governments and policymakers need to make an informed analysis.

Background Breastfeeding is the single, most cost-effective intervention to reduce worldwide child mortality. Women empowerment interventions have positive impacts on child and maternal nutritional, and health status. Women’s employment and economic participation in Ethiopia have shown progress over the past three decades. However, consistent evidence indicated that maternal employment is often negatively associated with optimal breastfeeding in Ethiopia. The existence and enforcement of breastfeeding law, arrangement, and support in the workplace have vital roles in protecting employed mothers’ ability and right to breastfeed upon return to work from maternity leave. This commentary compared the breastfeeding laws, policies, and arrangements in Ethiopia with international standards, recommendations, and evidence-based practices. Workplace breastfeeding policies in Ethiopia Public legislations of Ethiopia poorly protect the breastfeeding right of most new mothers. Ethiopian revised Labor Proclamation (No.1156/2019) incorporates most of the International Labour Organization maternity protection recommendations. However, it poorly safeguards breastfeeding rights and abilities of employed women. The provided maternity leave period is also shorter than the recommended exclusive breastfeeding duration. The revised Federal Civil Servant Proclamation of Ethiopia (NO.1064/2017) mandates the establishment of a nursery in government institutions where female civil servants could breastfeed and take care of their babies in a private room. Though, it protects only a small proportion of working mothers in Ethiopia, as majority women employed in the agriculture and informal economy sectors. So far, there are no notable workplace breastfeeding arrangements and support for employed mothers by employers and other initiatives. The ILO recommendation and experience of other middle income and low-income countries can be legal and practical grounds for establishment of breastfeeding-friendly workplace in Ethiopia. Conclusions The lack of workplace breastfeeding laws, arrangements, and supports in Ethiopia limits mothers’ right to practice optimal breastfeeding. Policymakers, the government, and all concerned bodies should give due attention to enacting and enforcing sound laws and arrangements that will enable employed mothers to practice optimal breastfeeding upon return to work.

Background Providing an enabling environment for breastfeeding is hampered by the inequitable implementation of paid maternity leave, primarily due to perceived or actual financial costs. To estimate the real cost of paid maternity leave requires using reliable methods. We compared methods utilized in two recent studies in Indonesia. Study A estimated the financial need of providing paid maternity leave in the formal sector with a 10-year forecast at 21% coverage of eligible mothers, while study B estimated similar costs for the informal sector at 100% coverage annually. Results are critical for guiding future application of either method to inform paid maternity leave policies. Methods We compared number of covered mothers working informally, total annual cost, and cost per mother. We modified some parameters used in study A (method A) to be similar to study B (method B) for comparison, namely the period of estimate (annual), coverage (100%), estimate of women potentially breastfeeding, exchange rate, female labor force participation rate, the percentage of women working in the informal sector, and adding administration cost. Results The methods differ in determining the number of mothers working in the informal sector who gave birth, the minimum wage as unit cost, and administrative cost. Both studies estimated the cost at various lengths of leave period. Method A requires more macro (e.g. national/regional) level data, while method B involves (e.g. individual) micro level data. We compared the results of method A with method B, respectively: 1) number of covered mothers working informally were 1,425,589 vs. 1,147,204; 2) total annual costs including administrative costs were US$650,230,167 vs. US$633,942,726, and; 3) cost/mother was US$456 vs US$553. Conclusion Certain flexibilities can be applied to both methods, namely using parameters specific to respective regions (e.g. provincial level parameters), flexible period of analysis, and the use of administrative cost. In a setting where micro data is scarce and not easily accessible, method A provides a feasible approach, while method B will be most appropriate if suitable micro data is available. Future comparison studies in other settings are needed to provide further evidence on the strengths and weaknesses of both methods.

Street vending in Ethiopia is a very important yet unbridled component of the informal sector. In the context of the current demographic dynamics and absence of sufficient job opportunities, street vending has become an important economic shelter for the urban poor. The key reasons for joining street vending include the small capital requirement, lack of access to credit facilities, and lack of suitable and commercially viable trading outlets. Street vendors use their personal savings, family transfers and informal credits as start-up capital. Street vendors generate by far better income than they used to get in their original villages. The social network is vital for joining the sector. The common narrative that operators in the informal sector are mainly with no formal education is frequently attacked as more people with formal education, including school dropouts, high-school completes and college graduates, are rapidly joining the sector. One of the major effects of street vending in Addis Ababa is the disruption in pedestrians’ free movement and vehicle traffic. Presence of large crowd of vendors in a given space is the function of the size (volume) of items carried by an individual vendor. Formal shop owners identify street vendors as unfair competitors. Many people in Addis are accustomed to “shopping” at the streets since vendors offer merchandise at relatively lower prices. Street vending has unregulated feature whereby the government loses tax income which could have been collected had the transactions taken place legally. Local governments are forced to allocate huge budgets to hire as many officers to control street businesses. However, given the recurrent rise in the crowd of immigrants and weakness of institutions, the task of regulating street business is becoming almost unfeasible. In Ethiopia, the economic and social significance of street vending is not yet well studied and articulated to guide state policy directions aimed at alleviating urban poverty.

Food fraud is an increasingly acknowledged problem that can cause unfair competition in the market, contribute to the grey economy, cause financial losses and threaten the health of consumers. Even so, little research exists on food-related criminal cases. The aim of this study was to characterize Finnish food-related criminal cases in order to improve understanding of the prevention of food-related crime. We investigated 127 cases resolved by the police, prosecutors, or district courts under the titles of food offence, health offence or marketing offence from 2008 to 2019. The analysis revealed that the incidence of cases was low and varied regionally, which may be due to varying abilities to detect cases and differences in reporting them to the police. The most common non compliances in the cases we analysed were unapproved or unregistered premises or activities (43.3%), false or misleading information provided on food products (39.4%), and insufficient or incorrect, false or misleading documents (31.5%). Safety hazards were associated with 45.7% of cases, while 2.4% involved verifiable instances of illness, which demonstrates that preventing food crime is important for consumer safety. The majority of cases (51.2%) were detected during food control inspections, highlighting the importance of performing inspections on-site. In addition, tip-offs to food control authorities about possible food-related crime (29.1% of cases) were an important mode of detection and could possibly be even more important if Finland were to have a centralized anonymous whistleblowing system. In total, 59.8% of cases led to a conviction or a sanction, and the most common type of punishment was a fine. Nevertheless, the fines tended to be rather low, and the proceeds of crime were recovered in only a few cases. More training for food control inspectors on the detection of food related crime, harmonized reporting practices, and increased legal praxis throughout the country could improve the detection and prevention of food crime in the future.

This study sought to conduct a socio-economic impact assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic on informal business tourism in Zimbabwe. The specific objective of this study was to identify the extent to which the informal business tourism economy in Zimbabwe has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and to prescribe guidelines and frameworks of workable actions to address the problems. As such, the study adopted a desktop research approach in which a thematic analysis of existing tourism development literature on business tourism in developing economies served as the basis for the arguments presented. Key issues highlighted in the paper include impacts on the supply of basic commodities and household income of the traders and business operations of the related businesses in the formal sector, traders’ survival strategies during the course of the national lockdown, and implications on the way forward. Furthermore, the study offers conclusions and implications drawn from the themes formulated from these key issues. The study also provides insights on the vulnerability of the informal business tourism sector to unforeseen occurrences, and how the affected stakeholder can recover from such a blow.

Seismometers have detected the social response to lockdown measures implemented following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in cities around the world. This long-lasting pandemic has been a particular challenge in countries such as Mexico, where the informal economy constitutes most of the working population. This context motivated the monitoring of the mobility of populations throughout the various phases of lockdown measures independently of people's access to the internet and mobile technology. Here we use the variation of anthropogenic seismic noise in the city of Querétaro (central Mexico) recorded by a network of low-cost Raspberry Shake seismic stations to study the spatial and temporal variation of human activity in the city throughout the pandemic and during sporting events. The results emphasize the importance of densifying urban seismic networks and of tracking human activities without the privacy concerns associated with mobile technology.

This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown on labour market in India. By using the data of centre for monitoring Indian economy (CMIE)'s consumer pyramids household survey (CPHS), the paper analyses the magnitude and nature of job losses and consequent unprecedented rise in unemployment across gender, social group, occupations during April-June 2020. It finds widespread job losses in labour market with some sections of the society, including small traders, self-employed, migrant workers, daily wage labourers, youth and women being worst affected, who mostly work in the informal sector of the Indian economy. Agriculture sector acted as a sponge by absorbing surplus labour during the times of COVID-19, which was being gradually vacated earlier over the years due to several well-known reasons. The rate of recovery in labour market has been comparatively much slower in case of salaried jobs, youth employment, particularly in rural areas and with elementary education. The economic consequences such disruptions on employment front were even much more serious as a very low percentage of households reporting improvement in their incomes. The most worrying aspect is that though the return to normalcy may take some time, there has been general recessionary trends in employment in India, which have been visible much before the COVID-19 crisis. The policy measures need to be extraordinary in such difficult times, focusing on securing employment and welfare of affected workers through sound and effective social protection programmes along with a major drive for promoting labour-intensive economic activities such as micro- and small enterprises, extension of employment security to poor urban households and skilling/reskilling of labour force to work in post-COVID-changed situations.

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of the informal economy (IE) on foreign direct investment (FDI) in a sample of petroleum producing countries (Algeria, Norway, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and United States) based on data covering the period of 1991–2018 and using the Non-linear Autoregressive Distribution Lag (NARDL) model. The NARDL model was built separately for each country in the study sample. The main finding of this study is the impact of IE size on FDI inflows in all of the countries in the study sample, even if they are all producing and exporting countries. The empirical results lead to distinguish between two sub-groups. The first sub-group consists of countries whose FDI inflows have been positively affected by positive and negative shocks in the IE. These countries are characterised by a high share of natural resources in their GDP. The second sub-group consists of countries whose inward FDI has been positively affected by negative shocks in the IE and negatively affected by the positive ones. The most common feature of this subgroup is the relative independence of economics from natural resources.

Background Health insurance is an important mechanism to prevent financial hardship in the process of accessing health care. Since the launch of Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2005, only 5% of Nigerians have health insurance and 70% still finance their healthcare through Out-Of-Pocket (OOP) expenditure. Understanding the contextualized perspectives of stakeholders involved in NHIS is critical to advancing and implementing necessary reforms for expanding health insurance coverage at national and sub-national levels in Nigeria. This study explored the perspectives of sub-national level actors/stakeholders on the design and implementation challenges of Nigeria’s NHIS. Methods A descriptive case study design was used in this research. Data were collected in Ibadan, Oyo State in 2016 from health insurance regulators, healthcare providers, and policymakers. Key informant interviews (KII) were conducted among purposively selected stakeholders to examine their perspectives on the design and implementation challenges of Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme. Data were analysed using inductive and deductive thematic approaches with the aid of NVIVO software package version 11. Results Implementation challenges identified include abject poverty, low level of awareness, low interest (in the scheme), superstitious beliefs, inefficient mode of payment, drug stock-out, weak administrative and supervisory capacity. The scheme is believed to have provided more coverage for the formal sector, its voluntary nature and lack of legal framework at the subnational levels were seen as the overarching policy challenge. Only NHIS staff currently make required financial co-contribution into the scheme, as all other federal employees are been paid for by the (federal) government. Conclusions Sub-national governments should create legal frameworks establishing compulsory health insurance schemes at the subnational levels. Effective and efficient platforms to get the informal sector enrolled in the scheme is desirable. CBHI schemes and the currently approved state supported health insurance programmes may provide a more acceptable platform than NHIS especially among the rural informal sector. These other two should be promoted. Awareness and education should also be raised to enlighten citizens. Stakeholders need to address these gaps as well as poverty.

BackgroundIn South Africa almost 2 million women work informally. Informal work is characterised by poor job security, low earnings, and unsafe working conditions, with high rates of poverty and food insecurity. The peripartum period is a vulnerable time for many working women. This study explored how mothers navigate the tension between the need to work and the need to take care of a newborn baby, and how this affects their feeding plans and practices.MethodsA mixed methods longitudinal cohort method was employed. Informal workers were recruited in the last trimester of pregnancy during an antenatal visit at two clinics in Durban, South Africa. Data were collected using in-depth interviews and quantitative questionnaires at three time points: pre-delivery, post-delivery and after returning to work. Framework analysis was used to analyse qualitative data in NVIVO v12.4. Quantitative analysis used SPSSv26.ResultsTwenty-four participants were enrolled and followed-up for a period of up to 1 year. Informal occupations included domestic work, home-based work, informal trading, and hairdressing, and most women earned ConclusionsInterventions are needed within the social and work environment to support mothers with breastfeeding while they continue earning an income in the informal economy. The extension of the CSG to the antenatal period could assist mothers to stay at home longer post-delivery to breastfeed their babies.

The study aims to address issues related to valuing women entrepreneurship in the informal economy in Bangladesh. To achieve the above objective, both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used. The author reviewed several articles, research reports, and included face to face in-depth interviews of fifteen entrepreneurs. Moreover, the applied five-point Likert scale questionnaire responded 100 random entrepreneurs from the rural areas of Bangladesh to recognize the barriers in accessing financial institutions and figure out how financial inclusions can contribute more in the informal economy. The results of this study suggest that complicated loans process, high-interest rates, absence of a life skills program, lack of financial freedom for women and property rights, entrepreneurial paradox, absence of collaterals, financial institutions negligence, mismanagement of loans, lack of interactions with local successful entrepreneur and imbalance of family and professional promise are the major barriers in accessing financial institutions in Bangladesh. In addition, financial inclusions are required to bring about changes in their lives. The results of the study will help Bangladesh and other developing countries break down the barriers for women entrepreneurs and develop the business opportunities created by women. In this regard, future research will anticipate both urban and rural areas, with a larger sample and quantitative studies will be conducted.

The main impact of urbanization is to increase urban population density. Increased investment in the industrial sector has opened up job opportunities in various sectors, including the informal sector. Street vendors (PKLs) are one of the informal sector jobs that are often found in plural urban communities. The plurality of the population in society creates different perceptions in terms of the type of work they are engaged in. This study aims to (1). Identify the socio-economic characteristics of PKLs; (2). Identify the strategies used by street vendors in maintaining their existence. This research is a descriptive-qualitative study obtained from interviews and direct observations of PKLs in Kendari. The informants were determined purposively. The analysis data is performed by compiling the data then interpreted by referring to the relationship between various concepts and social realities. The results showed that the street vendors in Kendari were generally villagers. They moved to Kendari, because the village where they lived was considered no longer representative for their survival. PKLs are generally urban mobility actors who live on the edge of Kendari. To maintain their existence, they perform various ways, including by strengthening ties between ethnic groups, improving services, finding strategic locations and making cheaper 'counter' products.

The object of research is the theory of formation of the shadow sector of the economy.The paper presents an evolutionary analysis of theories of the shadow economy emergence. It deals with the study of the main theories of the emergence of the informal sector of the economy and determines their features, preconditions of origin, and drivers. Based on the systematization of literary research of scholars, the following groups of theories have been identified: modernization theory, neoliberal theory, institutional theory, the theory of political economy. The analysis of the economic content of the concept of the shadow economy emergence has been used to identify the most influential drivers of the transition of economic entities into the «underground». In particular, the most influential factors include the level of centralization of power, the economic development of the country, the quality of the institutional environment, etc. The analysis of approaches to understanding the definition of the «shadow economy» revealed ambiguous interpretations of the concept of the shadow economy and a significant number of synonyms used in the study of the shadow economy. The Google Trends toolkit was used to prove the multivariate approaches to understanding the essence of this phenomenon. The most common interpretations include the shadow economy, the informal economy, the underground economy, the black economy, and the non-observed economy. The bibliometric analysis of scientific publications in journals indexed in Scopus and WoS databases for 2014–2020 yielded three main clusters, which combine papers that deal with the study of the theory of shadow economy. They are as follows: the shadow economy emerges mainly due to low rates of economic development of the country; the shadow economy emerges due to high unemployment; the growing share of the shadow sector of the economy is a consequence of ineffective government policies. The study concluded that the key task in the implementation of state policy aimed at combating the shadow economy should be coordination the state prevention measures with the most influential drivers of growth in the share of the shadow sector of the economy.

Qualitative methods are highly appreciated in both foreign and Russian sociological research focused on practical results and recommendations. Among numerous qualitative methods, case study seems to be the most relevant for the study of rural cooperation. Cooperatives are traditionally the most important means for supporting small producers in agriculture. Historical studies show that rural cooperation has always revived under social transformations. Today in Russia, transformations in rural areas are not complete and still determine serious social-economic consequences. The state support for cooperatives and small business is one of the priorities in rural development, but it has contradictory effects. Every year, many new cooperatives are registered, but their number is always smaller than the number of closed cooperatives. The study aims at understanding motives for creating cooperatives, and at identifying mechanisms of economic interaction of cooperative members and risks and conflicts that affect the life of the cooperative. The author shows the relevance of the case study method for studying the formation and functioning of cooperatives and for testing the hypothesis about combination of formal and informal mechanisms of economic interaction in cooperatives. The case study proved the dependence of formalization of economic relations in the cooperative on the scale of its activities, and revealed motives for cooperation of small agricultural producers. This work is a part of the research within the state assignment of the RANEPA Informal economy of rural households: Possibilities and limitations of economic practices in increasing the potential and general attractiveness of rural areas.

In this paper, we examine the main determinants of tax revenues in Côte d’Ivoire, paying attention to institutional factors and the informal economy. To do this, we apply the autoregressive distributed lag model developed by Pesaran et al. (2001) on annual data covering the period 1984-2016. The results show that the low quality of institutions and the high share of the informal economy are among the factors explaining the low mobilization of tax revenues in Côte d’Ivoire. The results also reveal that GDP per capita, official development assistance, the share of services in GDP, the distribution of income within the population and the education level of the population positively affect tax revenues. On the other hand, trade openness negatively affects tax revenues. Based on these results, the paper provides several recommendations that can help improve tax revenues in Côte d’Ivoire.Keywords: Tax revenue, Institutional quality, Informal economy, Cointegration, Côte d´Ivoire.JEL Classifications: H2, O17DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijefi.10363

Background: The importance of health insurance to individual and society at large cannot be overemphasized. It plays a critical role through enabling access to health care services and cushions the individual from catastrophic treatment costs. This study assessed the demographic and socioeconomic determinants of maternal health insurance coverage in Zambia. Methods: The study analysed the data from the 2013-14 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) using univariate, bivariate, binary logistic regression analyses to examine the relationship between demographic and socioeconomic and maternal health insurance coverage in Zambia. Results: The findings indicate that a very low proportion of the women(3%) have health insurance coverage in Zambia. The study also found that being married, access to media, higher age category, higher education level, being employed have a positive influence on health insurance coverage while province of residence and type of place of residence are negatively associated with health insurance coverage among women in Zambia. Conclusions:The study concludes that health insurance among women in Zambia is associated with marital status, access to media, age, education level, employed status, province of residence and type of place of residence. Given these findings, the study recommends that health insurance providers should tailor their health insurance packages not only to the needs of the employed but the unemployed, the younger age groups, the informal sector and those in the rural areas