The main currents (schools) of thought about the informal economy

Abstract

Since its emergence in the early 1970s, the concept of "informal economy" has been the subject of wide debates amongst both economists (Hart, Maloney, Fields, Haris, Todaro, etc.) and institutions, that have been preoccupied with labor market study (International Labor Office, World Bank, etc.). "Informaityl" is encountered in economic theory under a type of names, so if we refer to the labor informality we come across names like: informal sector (Hart Keith, 1973), undeclared work (European Commission, 1998), informal economy , occupation in the informal sector and informal employment (ILO, 1993/2003), invisible or hidden occupation (OECD, 2004), and if we refer to "informality" in a general sense, the literature uses concepts such as dual economy, tax evasion (as a practice of informality), underground economy, shadow economy. Generally, most specialists associate the term "informality" with something negative (unprotected workers who do not benefit from social security, poor productivity, unfair competition, excessive legislative regulations, non-payment of taxes to the state budget, "black work"), but there are authors who consider the