This paper introduces a comprehensive database of informal economic activity. The
database focuses on measures that have strong cross-country and over time coverage: it …

We study the effects of a positive export shock on labor allocation between the informal,
microenterprise sector and the formal firm sector in a low-income country. The United States …

China's national accounts are based on data collected by local governments. However,
since local governments are rewarded for meeting growth and investment targets, they have …

Developing the concept of institutional incongruence and employing panel data from 60
countries, we outline an alternative view of the informal economy and the effects of …

The study explores the potential association between e-government and the informal
economy. We find that e-government is a powerful instrument to lessen informal economic …

We document how informal employment in Mexico is countercyclical, lags the cycle and is
negatively correlated with formal employment. This contributes to explaining why total …

Cross-country evidence highlights the importance of tax evasion and corruption in
determining the size of fiscal multipliers. We introduce these two features in a New …

We incorporate remittances and micro-entrepreneurship (self-employment) into a small
open economy business cycle model with capital and labor market frictions. Countercyclical …

This paper aims to present a comprehensive survey of the literature on the economics of
informality. First, we focus on studies that aim to provide measures of informality using …

We provide evidence, based on a large sample of countries, on the effects of financial crises
on key labor market indicators, including official and unofficial employment, unemployment …