Publications on informal economy

  1. PRODUCTIVITY

    TRENDS IN PRODUCTIVITY AND STRUCTURAL CHANGES. A comparative analysis of four emerging-market economies.

    17 November 2021

    This study undertaken by the Bureau for Employers' Activities of the ILO (ACT/EMP) is part of a research project to analyse the barriers to productivity growth, diversification and structural change in four selected emerging market economies Vietnam, Colombia, Turkey, and South Africa. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the design of coherent and comprehensive strategies, with a human-centred approach, to foster productivity and structural change, will be of utmost importance to accelerate the economic and employment recovery in the post-pandemic environment to build forward better.

  2. Cooperatives and the World of Work Series No. 12

    Waste pickers’ cooperatives and social and solidarity economy organizations

    20 August 2019

    Waste pickers make significant contributions to public health, sanitation, and the environment by promoting resource circulation and reducing the amount of landfill. However, they are often not legally recognized as workers and suffer from poor working conditions and lack of social protection. This brief highlights the role of waste pickers' cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations (SSEOs) in integrating and formalizing the work of waste pickers in the recycling value chain and improving their working conditions.

  3. Research Department Working Paper n°10

    Do public employment services improve employment outcomes? Evidence from Colombia

    11 March 2016

    The paper assesses the effects of participation in the Public Employment Service (PES) in Colombia by means of propensity score matching.

  4. Publication

    The formal and informal sectors in Colombia: Country case study on labour market segmentation

    12 December 2013

    Employment Working Paper No. 146

  5. Publication

    The health of workers in selected sectors of the urban economy: Challenges and perspectives

    01 January 2013

    This paper aimed at analysing and systematizing the health challenges faced by the poorest strata of urban workers and to discuss solutions.

  6. Publication

    Desk review of research on HIV/AIDS in the world of work

    31 July 2012

    This desk review was conducted by ILO/AIDS as part of the Inter-Agency Task Team on HIV workplace policies/programmes and private sector engagement (IATT/WPPS). It is based primarily on the research documents shared by the IATT members, covering vulnerability studies, stigma and discrimination studies, impact and cost-benefit studies.

  7. Working paper

    Working Paper No. 36: "Non-standard workers: Good practices of social dialogue and collective bargaining"

    26 April 2012

    This paper provides a comparative synthesis analysis of a series of national studies on non-standard work, collective bargaining and social dialogue in selected countries (Argentina,Colombia, India, Indonesia, Hungary, Japan and South Africa), which the Industrial and Employment Relations Department (DIALOGUE) of the ILO has conducted as a pilot project under the ILO’s Global Product on “Supporting collective bargaining and sound industrial relations”. The national studies aimed at identifying current and emerging non-standard forms of work arrangements within which workers are in need of protection; examining good practices in which people in non-standard forms of work are organized; analysing the role that collective bargaining and other forms of social dialogue play in improving the terms and conditions as well as the status of non-standard workers; and identifying good practices in this regard.