Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/51678 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5607
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
What does it mean to be in the informal sector? Many characterizations have been used in the literature, for example, firms that are unregistered or employ a small workforce or firms/economic enterprises that do not have access to formal capital markets. But many people participate in both formal and informal activities, while classification of participation is often based on primary employment. This creates limitations to the analytical power of existing measures of informality. We develop a method for assigning households to the informal sector by inferring informal sector activity using income and expenditure surveys. We apply this method to the case of Bulgaria using LSMS income and expenditure surveys before and after a significant economic reform and compare it to those made using other indicators of informal sector activity. Our work shows that the informal sector acts as a buffer for households during periods of crisis when formal sector employment opportunities are limited. It shows the limitations of alternative stylized measures of informality in assessing the vulnerability of households involved in the informal sector, especially during periods of extreme economic hardship.
Subjects: 
informal labour markets
crisis
Bulgaria
JEL: 
O17
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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