Informality

Rethinking Indonesia's Informal Sector

This paper, published in World Development reviews competing theories about the causes of informality in developing countries and uses new data to determine which theory best explains the persistence and scale of Indonesia’s informal sector.

Journal Article
1 Apr 2016

Finding a Path to Formalization in Benin: Early Results after the Introduction of the Entreprenant Legal Status

In April 2014, the Government of Benin launched the entreprenant status, a simplified and free legal regime offered to small informal businesses to enter the formal economy.

Working Paper
1 Dec 2015

The Value of Formalization for Women Entrepreneurs in Developing Contexts - A Review and Research Agenda

This synthesis review looks to extend the theoretical approaches to explaining the value of formalisation, with an emphasis on women in the informal sector.

Research Project
1 Sep 2015

Making it Easier for Women in Malawi to Formalize their Firms and Access Financial Services

In contexts where formalization of firms and access to financial services is low, research shows that combining business registration with an information session at a bank including the offer of a business bank account leads to increased usage of financial services by entrepreneurs.

Research Note
10 Jul 2015

The Dynamics of Female Informal Enterprise Growth in Kenya and the Role of Reallocation in Returns to Business Training

By leveraging the ILO’s targeted business-training program for women called GET Ahead, this study will use a randomized control trial to help understand the dynamics of business growth of informal female-owned microenterprises in Kenya..

Research Project
1 Jun 2015

Short-Term Impacts of Formalization Assistance and a Bank Information Session on Business Registration and Access to Finance in Malawi

Despite regulatory efforts designed to make it easier for firms to formalize, informality remains extremely high among firms in Sub-Saharan Africa. In most of the region, business registration in a national registry is separate from tax registration.

Working Paper
1 Jan 2015

SME’s registration Evidence from an RCT in Bangladesh

Firms' informality is pervasive in Bangladesh. In this paper published in Economics Letters, De Giorgi and Rahman (2013) implemented an information campaign on registration and find that the treatment made firms more aware, but had no impact on registration.

Journal Article
1 Sep 2013

Exit from Informality: Carrot and Stick

Using one treatment to reduce the costs of registration for firms and one to emphasize the legal costs of informality, this project seeks to identify specific policy interventions designed to induce the formalization of firms.

Research Project
1 May 2012

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