Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/46179 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5229
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Within a general equilibrium framework of a developing economy with a foreign owned factor of production, this paper questions whether the informal-formal sector relationship is procyclical/ complementary - expansion or contraction in one necessarily implies an expansion or contraction in the other - when the informal sector is subject to a technological shock. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition under which a positive shock to the informal sector results in a contraction in both the size of the urban formal sector and the informal sector. Thus, although our result shows that the informal-formal sector relationship is procyclical, it nevertheless calls into question the conventional wisdom on the benefits of intervention in the informal sector of developing economies, particularly where multinational corporations sub-contract certain labor intensive stages of production to the informal sector.
Subjects: 
rural-urban migration
urban informal sector
technological change
JEL: 
J8
R13
R23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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