Facilitating the formalisation of entrepreneurs in the informal economy

What is it about?

Although it has been recognised that many entrepreneurs operate in the informal economy, little is so far known about their reasons for doing so. The aim of this paper is to begin to unravel entrepreneurs’ rationales for trading in the informal economy in order to consider what policy measures need to be adopted to facilitate their formalisation.

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Why is it important?

Revealing that the rationales for entrepreneurs operating in the informal economy markedly differ according to whether they are wholly or partially informal entrepreneurs operating temporarily or permanently in the informal economy, the result is a call for a move beyond a ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy approach and towards a variegated public policy approach whereby policy measures are tailored to tackling the different types of informal entrepreneurship, each of which operate informally for varying reasons.

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