Publications on informal economy

  1. ILO Working paper 39

    Welfare Effects of Unemployment Benefits when Informality is High

    05 August 2021

    We analyze for the first time how the high incidence of informal employment affects the welfare effects of unemployment benefits (UBs) outside of developed economies, exploiting matched administrative and survey data from the UB scheme of Mauritius. We find positive and large welfare effects, because the consumption drop at layoff exceeds what studies find for high-income countries, while the efficiency costs are comparatively low. In addition, UB recipients appear to move into informal employment out of economic necessity, rather than as part of a strategic choice.

  2. Flagship Report

    World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020

    20 January 2020

    This report provides an overview of global and regional trends in employment, unemployment, labour force participation and productivity.

  3. Publication

    Work on Digital Labour Platforms in Ukraine: Issues and Policy Perspectives

    27 July 2018

    The surveys focused specifically on working conditions of online platform workers in Ukraine, and show that digital labour platforms have transformed the modes of work and changed how work is viewed by both businesses and workers.

  4. Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 103

    On-call work in the Netherlands: trends, impact, and policy solutions

    23 April 2018

    Flexible work has steadily increased in the Dutch labour market and on-call employment represents the fastest growing group. Although on-call work is both the largest and the least institutionally regulated form of flexible employment, little is known on its developments and impacts.

  5. Publication

    Gender and the informal economy: Key challenges and policy response

    22 December 2017

    EMPLOYMENT Working Paper No. 236

  6. Research Department Working Paper n°20

    Active labour market programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean: Evidence from a meta analysis

    26 September 2017

    This paper presents a systematic collection and assessment of impact evaluations of active labour market programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean

  7. Publication

    DOLE’s Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program: Philippines

    09 August 2017

  8. 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.

  9. Publication

    Enterprise Formalization: Fact or Fiction? – New ILO/GIZ Study on what works to formalize enterprises

    02 June 2014

    Informality of enterprises seems to be a rational behaviour that can best be overcome by reducing the cost of formalization and by offering clear benefits like an extended coverage of social protection. This is one of the key findings of a new joint study of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) trying to summarize what works and what doesn’t work in formalizing the large informal enterprise sector in developing and emerging countries.

  10. © Shayan Mehrabi 2022

    Work4Youth Publications

    Informal employment among youth: evidence from 20 school-to-work transition surveys

    04 February 2014

    This report provides empirical evidence to confirm that informal employment, a category considered as “non-standard” in traditional literature, is in fact “standard” among young workers in developing economies. Based on the school-to-work transitions surveys (SWTSs) run in 2012-2013, the report finds that three-quarters of young workers aged 15-29 (at the aggregate level) are currently engaged in informal employment.