Publications on informal economy

  1. Publication

    Progressive access to finance and support to encourage enterprise formalization: Experiences from Egypt and Chile

    05 October 2021

    This document is part of a series of case studies by the Enterprises Department of the ILO. Each case study presents one or several approaches that contribute to enterprise formalization across the world.

  2. Publicación

    Regional study of child labour and social protection in childhood in Argentina - Executive summary

    30 September 2021

  3. Briefing note

    Theory of Change: Enterprise formalization for decent work

    23 September 2021

  4. Publication

    The Informal Economy in Kenya

    20 September 2021

  5. Publicación

    Child labour and family dynamics - Executive summary

    20 September 2021

  6. 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.

  7. ILO News

    ILO Pasifika Update August 2021

    02 August 2021

    In this edition of the ILO Pacific Newsletter, you will find updates on events and other news highlights of ILO’s work in the Pacific from April to July 2021.

  8. ILO Working paper 38

    Freelance platform work in the Russian Federation: 2009–2019

    26 July 2021

    This paper traces the development of freelance platform work in the Russian Federation based on unique data from four online surveys conducted over the period 2009 and 2019 via the leading platform for creative and knowledge-based work and analyses the working conditions and well-being of the workers.

  9. International Labour Review, Centenary Collection (2021), No. 1

    Introduction: The long discourse on informality as reflected in selected articles of the International Labour Review

    19 July 2021

    This article presents a Centenary Issue on Informality to mark the 100th anniversary of the International Labour Review (ILR). The issue brings together ten articles published in the ILR between 1975 and 2016 that are de­voted exclusively to the analysis of informality. This introduction begins with an analytical framework, considers the origins of the informality discourse and then discusses the articles in this Centenary Issue, locating them in the broader literature through illustrative rather than comprehensive referencing. It concludes by looking ahead to what the coming decades of analysis and pol­icy discourse may bring.

  10. Guidebook for policymakers, workers’ and employers’ organizations and other stakeholders

    Extending social security to workers in the informal economy: Lessons from international experience

    29 June 2021

    For most workers in the informal economy, the lack of social protection is a challenge not only in their daily struggles to make ends meet but in their aspirations to obtain decent work, rights and dignity. For the societies in which they live, the lack of social protection coverage weakens social justice and undermines inclusive growth and the realization of human rights.