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We empirically examine the relationship between business regulation and total (i.e., formal and informal) entrepreneurship using a unique panel data set. We estimate separate regressions for opportunity-driven and necessity-driven nascent entrepreneurship as well as young business entrepreneurship based on two different estimation methods (pooled OLS and system GMM). Our results show that business regulation generally rather hinders entrepreneurship. If we additionally consider the development stage of countries, we find different results for high-income and lower-income countries: first, we surprisingly find that stricter employment protection legislation positively affects entrepreneurship in lower-income countries where the informal sector is larger. This might be because more rigid employment laws make waged employment less attractive to employers, who thus push employees into dependent or informal self-employment. Second, we find that stricter insolvency regulation hinders entrepreneurship only in high-income economies. In lower-income economies, where there are more unregistered businesses, insolvency laws might be more difficult to enforce, so entrepreneurship rates are less affected. Third, we find that government intervention in the form of high-quality governmental support programs stimulates opportunity nascent and young business entrepreneurship. This relationship is apparent only in high-income countries, where the formal sector is larger, as such programs typically address formal rather than informal entrepreneurs. Governmental support programs may thus reach the goal of facilitating entrepreneurship only in high-income economies. Plain English Summary: How does regulation affect entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurial activity is seen as a major driver of economic growth, as it turns knowledge into economic output. This justifies the interest of policy makers around the world in promoting entrepreneurship. While the United States, well-known for their entrepreneurial spirit, have achieved global dominance in the innovation-driven information and communication technology industry, Western European nations failed to catch up in terms of new business creation. This may be due to the different approaches in terms of new business regulations. Nevertheless, our study suggests that a combination of both the low regulation route pursued by the United States and the high support route favored in Continental Europe may best promote the creation of new firms. However, the impact of regulatory measures depends on the development stage of countries and thus on the size of the formal and informal sector. The simultaneous deregulation of firm entry and provision of government support programs might be most fruitful to facilitate entrepreneurial activity, particularly in highly developed economies. However, policy makers in developing economies should consider that some measures, such as improving the labor market regulation, may push people into informal entrepreneurship, which might not be desirable from the policy maker's perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Nova Economia is the property of Nova Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Investigación Económica is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Facultad de Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Crisis hotlines are a fixture in providing mental health services to individuals experiencing mental and behavioral problems in the United States (U.S.). Despite this, and the growing need for easily-accessible, anonymous, and free services amidst the suicide and opioid crises, there is no study reporting U.S. national prevalence and correlates of hotline use. Data on n = 18,909 participants from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), a group of three nationally-representative, population-based studies, were used to estimate the prevalence of lifetime and past 12-month hotline use. A series of logistic regression models examined sociodemographic, clinical history and service use correlates of hotline use. Lifetime and past 12-month hotline use was estimated at 2.5% and 0.5%, respectively. Being female, having a mental or behavioral disorder, experiencing suicidality, or interacting with other formal and informal sectors of the mental health service system were significant correlates of use. This study provides the first national estimates of crisis hotline usage in the U.S. Hotlines are more likely to be used by certain sociodemographic subgroups, but these differences may be due to differing psychiatric history and service use patterns. Efforts should be made to ensure that crisis hotlines are being utilized by other marginalized populations at high risk of suicide or overdose amidst the current public health crises in the U.S., such as racial/ethnic minorities or youth. To evaluate the role that crisis hotlines play in the mental health service system, national surveys should aim to monitor trends and correlates over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argentina's Proempleo Experiment, conducted in 1998-2000, was designed to assess whether a wage subsidy and specialized training could assist the transition from workfare to regular work. Randomly sampled workfare participants in a welfare-dependent urban area were given a voucher that entitled an employer to a sizable wage subsidy; a second sample also received the option of skill training; and a third sample formed the control group. The authors find that voucher recipients had a higher probability of employment than did the control group, even though the rate of actual take-up of vouchers by the hiring employers was very low. The employment gains were in the informal sector and largely confined to female workers, younger workers, and more educated workers. Skill training had no statistically significant impact overall, though once the analysis corrects for selective compliance, an impact for those with sufficient prior education is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although worker centers have reenergized immigrant labor movements in the U.S., recent research points to their potential deradicalization as they expand and institutionalize. This article builds on emerging critiques of the nonprofit worker center model by interrogating this organizational form through the analytic lens of governmentality, particularly efforts to shape immigrant workers' subjectivities, proclivities, and comportment to capacitate them for the exigencies of responsible citizenship. How do worker centers set out to make ethical subjects out of "illegal" immigrant workers? What technologies do centers rely on to redeem populations marked as criminal, deviant, and deficient? I explore these questions through a case study of a worker center in San Francisco, California, which serves immigrant day laborers and domestic workers. I focus on its "feminist wing" to highlight the technologies of empowerment and self-esteem aimed at reforming Latina immigrant women, a group historically deemed "neither ideal laborers nor ideal women." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cigarette smuggling undermines policymakers' efforts to curb smoking while also leading to tax revenue leakages. Policymakers around the world are trying to obtain a better understanding of how to combat cigarette smuggling. This paper adds to the literature on cigarette demand and related smuggling by considering the cross-border influences of both the price differentials and the shadow economy. While price/tax differentials induce both casual and organized smuggling, the presence of the shadow economy facilitates smuggling and opens up possibilities for arbitrage in smuggled goods. Using data across U.S. states for the years 1997–2008, results show that border price effects are positive and statistically significant, and the average shadow economy in bordering states facilitates smuggling, with own shadow economy sometimes showing signs of facilitating intra- and cross-border smuggling. The other findings regarding the negative own-price elasticities and habit persistence for smoking are in line with the larger literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of research exploring the relationship between the economy and crime, there is a lack of clarity in this literature. Questions remain, particularly with respect to how the economy is measured and whether the relationship between the economy and crime is the same across contexts. The literature to date has overlooked what is called the "shadow" economy, which represents unreported economic activity. We examine the relationship between traditional measures of the legitimate economy (e.g. unemployment) and crime as well as whether the shadow economy moderates this relationship using a panel of U.S. states from 1997 to 2008. Our results show that the shadow economy reduces the strength of the relationship between the legitimate economy and crime, and the effect of the economy on crime is conditional on the size of the shadow economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author talks about crtiques on International Labour Organization (ILO). Topics discussed include significant omissions, and interpretations by careful assessments or systematic research of labor economics; policies for the informal sector to macro-economic policy for employment creation; and efforts to entrench important human rights in the standards system after the Second World War.

In this article, I examine the material and everyday practices of a community of thrift-shoppers at the Goodwill Bins. Their practices reveal that shopping in these cutthroat environments is anything but leisurely. By attending to how these spaces are utilised as resources for independent ventures in the informal economy, I show how the occupation of reselling blurs the lines between consumption and production, and shopping and work. I argue that the thrift store can be viewed as a microcosm of the broader shifts occurring in the economy and the latest capitalist reorganisation of work into non-standard and precarious forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the relationship between the government and the private sector in the United States in 1967. The author feels that the term "private sector" is overly broad since it can refer to businesses ranging from local retailers to government-funded defense contractors as well as government-regulated utility companies. He calls for the privatization of government corporations as a more effective way to streamline certain businesses that are creatively stagnant. He also suggests that welfare reform and social policies such as federally financed medical care offer great hopes for a better society.

We demonstrate how the presence of an informal sector can sharply lower the cost of environmental and energy tax policy through two mechanisms. First, energy taxes indirectly tax the informal sector because even informal firms must buy formal sector sources of energy such as electricity. Second, a revenue-neutral shift in the tax base toward energy can decrease the tax burden on goods which are substituted for by the informal sector. These mechanisms can lead to welfare-enhancing substitution from informal labor into the formal sector. We consider the magnitude of these effects in a stylized model of the U.S. tax system. Even though the U.S. informal sector is relatively small, we find that distortionary costs of energy taxes are reduced by more than half. In developing countries, where the informal sector is typically much larger, the effect we identify here become even more relevant: we find negative gross costs in many cases. Finally, we address two potentially important countervailing effects: the use of informal fuels in developing countries and the potential for informal production to substitute for energy-intensive goods. We show how these different types of informality compete, and find that welfare enhancing effects typically dominate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cities across the United States, groups of mostly men congregate in public and semipublic spaces in hopes of being hired for short-term work. The particular spaces where laborers congregate each day are crucial to their economic and social fortunes, yet to date, there is limited research examining the spatial organization of these sites. In this article, I draw on relational perspectives on the production of space and governmentality practices to examine day-labor hiring spaces in the San Diego Metropolitan Area. Drawing on more than seven years of mixed-methods research, I argue that laborers collectively employ strategic visibility: a set of spatial practices that reduces the potential for conflict and ensures laborers’ continued access to the particular spaces on which their survival depends. This analysis suggests that laborers’ site-selection and spatial practices are driven by pragmatic, economic concerns, rather than fear of interactions with policing agencies and/or anti-immigrant residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Day-labor hiring sites are found in more than 120 municipalities across the U.S., there is limited research examining the specific drivers that generate direct interventions into the day-labor market, nor is there any research examining the effectiveness of day-labor management policies. In what follows, I draw on examples from the San Diego Metropolitan Area (SDMA) to address this gap in policy-research. The findings demonstrate the pervasiveness of neoliberal ideology in day-labor management, from policing strategies to social service provision. In each case examined, local governments only took direct action when they believed day-labor activity threatened local commercial activity or when residents' fear of 'illegal immigrant' day-laborers made them question the state's ability to control space effectively. In each case, I also evaluate the effectiveness and cost of the management strategy. The results of this analysis clearly demonstrate that attempts to eliminate day-labor activity are costly and expensive while efforts to formalize day-labor cost less and have a higher success rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite research documenting social economy organizations (SEOs) as important labour market intermediaries in the informal economy, the impact of these organizations on employment outcomes experienced by workers engaged in these labour markets is relatively unknown. This article analyses the impact of day labour worker centres on employment outcomes experienced in the informal day labour economy of the United States. Using data from the National Day Labour Survey, findings indicate that these organizations improve working conditions for day labourers and suggest the potential for SEOs to regulate employment processes within the informal economy. However increasing the regulatory capacity of SEOs will require addressing larger political and socioeconomic contexts in which the informal economy is embedded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the predictive content of the shadow rates for US real activity and inflation in a data-rich environment. We find that the shadow rates contain substantial out-of-sample predictive power for inflation in nonzero lower bound and zero lower bound periods. In contrast, the shadow rates are uninformative about future real activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This study provides the first panel data estimates of informal work in the United States and explores relationships between informal- and regular-sector participation among urban parents of young children. Methods. I examine determinants of informal-sector participation in five waves of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study using probit, pooled Tobit, and fixed-effects OLS models. Results. Approximately 53 percent of urban fathers and 32 percent of urban mothers with young children pursue informal work over a nine-year period. Informal work most often occurs in conjunction with regular work.Workers who work in both sectors in the same year are more likely to be nonminority race, higher education (mothers only), own credit cards, and work in skilled white- or blue-collar occupations. Workers who ever participate in only the informal sector are more likely to be younger, to have health limitations, and to have never worked in the regular sector. Informal participation spells are shorter than regular-sector participation spells and are associated with changes in regular-sector participation and occupation but not most other life events. Conclusion. Consistent with past work, informal work among parents of young children is widespread across socioeconomic groups. Transitions in and out of the informal sector are strongly related to changes in regular-sector employment and occupation. The results suggest that regular-sector participation provides access to informal work opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Good Work Code (GWC) and forms of worker organizing in the U.S. It discusses Jay Youngdahl's three objections to the GWC such as the values framework articulated is aspirational and unenforceable, companies engaging in bad labor practices, and belief to mobilize good capitalism to solve problem of worker exploitation. Other topics include the function of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), labor movement, and vision of GWC.

Copyright of Lien Social et Politiques is the property of Institut National de Recherche Scientifique (INRS) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the determinants of the shadow economy across American states, with emphasis on cross-border spillover effects. Results show positive spillovers of shadow activities across state borders with different specifications. In other effects, greater unionization in a state induces businesses to go underground, while states without a sales tax had a smaller shadow economy, ceteris paribus. Greater state product checked shadow growth, with military and nonmilitary state products having opposite effects. Finally, states bordering Canada and Mexico had different flows from the shadow sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ways in which migrant workers establish particular relations to the state in shifting environments of criminalization and stigmatization that change the geography and nature of undocumented labor in the United States. Centering on Northern California, I address the results of the economic downturn between 2007 and 2009 for undocumented migrant men who had established jobs and paid taxes using fake Social Security cards, but whose labor conditions became unsustainable, leading many of them to turn to informal labor sites. I argue that work environments for many migrants shift to effectively ensure the marginalization of cheap labor, while maintaining their contributions to local economies and accommodating to the political constraints of the moment. I follow accounts of counterfeit identification, mainly fake Social Security cards, in labor practices that inscribe migrant laborers into the 'system' they are supposed to be abusing, but to which they actually contribute a great deal through mimetic articulations of citizenship. I show how severing such ties becomes necessary in times of economic crisis and heighted criminalization, and I illustrate the ways in which real and imagined state repression make what Nicholas De Genova (2002) has called 'deportability' an effective way to control and maintain an undocumented labor force within the boundaries of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature and theory surrounding the informal economy in international contexts suggest that informal work arrangements may entail assuming various levels of risk, and that the higher the level of risk in an employment arrangement, the higher the premium paid to the worker. This study is designed to assess if a wage compensation for risk exists within the United States' day labour job market - the most visible sector of the United States' informal economy. Using data from the 2005 National Day Labour Survey we find a statistically significant wage premium indicating that a risk-wage tradeoff within the day labour informal economy exists. Ultimately, we argue that current policy interventions facilitated through day labour centres into the day labour market appear to be effective in mitigating the risks associated with this type of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enduring problem in the analysis of tax evasion is the difficulty of its measurement. An especially troublesome component of tax evasion arises from informal suppliers, such as self-employed domestic workers, street-side vendors, and moonlighting tradesmen. We develop in this paper a new approach for estimating self-employment earnings of informal suppliers. Our methodology involves using national survey results on self-employment earnings within a carefully selected set of industry categories where informal activities are concentrated. Then, by comparing these national survey results on self-employment earnings to Internal Revenue Service statistics on the amounts actually reported for tax purposes, it is possible to estimate the extent of noncompliance within the selected industry categories. Our methodology relies on survey respondents being reasonably forthcoming about their earnings, which we are able to confirm through some validation exercises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I read the television shows The Sopranos and Breaking Bad to explore how an illegitimate economy represents a legitimate one. I argue that what holds these shows together in some proto-generic organization is that money functions as both a criminal outside to capital and a structural assertion that capital has no outside. Thus I claim that capital is best represented by its own double, that legitimate enterprise is best represented by illegitimate enterprise, but that representation is only efficacious because ultimately there is no capitalist activity that, for the right price, cannot become legitimate. I suggest we might best see fiction itself as a kind of liquidity, one of the forms that circulating capital takes, and thus representation and the potential for accumulation become theoretical cognates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Business in the urban informal economy can be seen as a challenging terrain with enormous hurdles for women entrepreneurs. This paper explores major barriers that obstruct smooth development of women entrepreneurship in Uganda’s urban informal economy. The study provides some useful academic insights and offers some practical suggestions for improving policy for women entrepreneurs. The value of this research lies in providing significant insights related to the initiation of policies and programs for entrepreneurship development, but also in increasing women’s involvement in the urban informal economy through a better understanding of the gender-based barriers to entrepreneurship. It is hoped that the study will influence business development in the urban informal economies of Uganda in particular, and Africa in general. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare conditions in informal day-labor markets in South Africa and the USA to better understand the nature of worker vulnerabilities in this market, as well as the economic conditions that have contributed to the growth of day labor. The conclusion considers interventions that are underway in the two countries to improve conditions in day-labor markets. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on national surveys of day laborers in South Africa and the USA. A random sample of day laborers seeking work at informal hiring sites was undertaken in each country. The paper presents key findings, compares conditions in South Africa and the USA, and analyzes the relationship between economic change, labor-market dynamics, and worker vulnerability. Findings – Day-labor work is characterized by low pay, hazardous conditions on the job, and tremendous income insecurity. The day-labor markets in South Africa and the USA perform somewhat different functions within regional economies. Within South Africa, day labor can be regarded as a survival strategy. The growth of day labor in South Africa over the past decade is a manifestation of a formal labor market that is incapable of absorbing the structurally unemployed. Here, day labor is the employment of last resort, allowing workers to subsist on the fringes of the mainstream economy, but offering few pathways into the formal sector. In the USA, the day labor workforce is a largely undocumented-immigrant workforce. Workers seek work at informal hiring sites, maintaining a tenuous hold on jobs in the construction industry. There is evidence of some mobility into more stable and better paying employment. Practical implications – This paper documents the need for policies and programs to increase employment opportunities for day laborers and to better enforce labor standards in the informal economy. Originality/value – This paper summarizes findings from the only two national surveys of day laborers that have been conducted, and it compares for the first time the dynamic within growing day-labor markets in a developed- and emerging-market context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The federal government spent over $550 billion procuring goods, services, and construction from the private sector last year. To keep these taxpayer dollars from going to inscrutable contractors, the government uses the remedies of suspension and debarment to ensure that only "responsible" parties perform government contracts. The current regulations, however, are too broad and permit agencies to suspend and debar individuals and companies that do not have an established connection to government contracting. In the face of political pressures to increase suspension and debarment actions, these overbroad regulations invite misuse. Not only do actions against such individuals and companies violate the purposes of the suspension and debarment regulations--protecting the government and acting in the public interest--they are inefficient and waste valuable taxpayer resources. Narrowing the scope of suspension and debarment regulations so that agencies may take actions only against those individuals and companies that currently contract, or have previously contracted, with the government ensures suspension and debarment programs are efficiently employing their limited resources with an aim toward protecting the government, not generally policing contractor behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We model illegal immigration across the US-Mexico border into Arizona, California, and Texas as an unobservable variable applying a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes model. Using state-level data from 1985 to 2004, we test the incentives and deterrents influencing illegal immigration. Better labor market conditions in a US state and worse in Mexico encourage illegal immigration while more intense border enforcement deters it. Estimating the state-specific inflow of illegal Mexican immigrants we find that the 1994/95 peso crisis in Mexico led to significant increases in illegal immigration. US border enforcement policies in the 1990s provided temporary relief while post-9/11 re-enforcement has reduced illegal immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The common image of a female wage earner in the U.S. in the decades around the turn of the 20th century is that of a young, single woman: the daughter of her family. However, the wives and mothers of these families also made important economic contributions to their families' economies. This paper argues that we need to rethink our evaluation of the economic roles played by ever-married women in working-class families. Using a range of government reports as well as IPUMS, I document three ways in which working-class wives and mothers strove to bring cash into their family units: through formal workforce participation; through home work of various sorts; and through selling subsistence, providing in-home services to nonfamily members in exchange for cash. Unlike earlier works which focused on single locations or ethnic or racial groups or female occupations, I tell a national story of ever-married women's cash-producing work. Working-class wives and mothers filled in the economic gaps existing in the interactions of their families with the capitalist marketplace through a range of different methods. While early 20th-century unions called for the establishment of a "living wage" for male workers, the world in which those workers lived required both family wages and family strategies to bring in other forms of cash for their survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]