This paper investigates how uncertainty driven by political instability or the Covid-19 crisis affects mobile money adoption and use by informal businesses in Burkina Faso.
This research investigates whether the adoption of mobile money can induce microenterprises to formalise. We use as setting Burkina Faso and exploit survey data on informal business and randomised incentives and information.
Informal actors often compete with formal or regulated ones. Regulated actors therefore can be natural allies in government attempts to enforce laws and regulations. Yet they often are not.
Most low- and middle-income countries are characterised by a large informal sector, which implies that a substantial fraction of economic activity in these countries is completely unregulated.
This paper reports on the universe of garment-making firm owners in a Ghanaian district capital during the COVID-19 crisis. By July 2020, 80% of both male- and female-owned firms were operational.
This paper examines whether mobile money adoption can induce informal firms to formalize, an aspect that has been overlooked in the empirical literature.
Despite the depiction of decisions to formalize informal firms as rational and ethical, many entrepreneurs in developing countries continue to operate informally regardless of its perceived illicit status.
