Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

The informal sector denotes the small-scale, unprotected, and loosely regulated activities and self-employment that proliferate in developing countries. This book is about the people who engage in informal activities and the people who study, interpret, intervene in, promote, or attempt to repress or regulate the sector. The authors bring together and evaluate for the first time competing theories, policies, and research findings on the informal sector, dealing with issues of power, ideology, and politics; basic research, applied research, program evaluation, and policymaking; exploitation, entrepreneurship, and opportunity; and poverty and the accumulation of wealth.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Tables
• Acknowledgments
• I Overview
• 1 Introduction: What Debate?
• 2 The Informal Sector Debate, Part 1: 1970-1983
• 3 The Informal Sector Debate, Part 2: 1984-1993
• 4 The Many Roles of the Informal Sector in Development: Evidence from Urban Labor Market Research, 1940-1989
• II Macro Level Policy Issues
• 5 The Impact of Government Policies on Microenterprise Development: Conclusions from Empirical Studies
• 6 Macroeconomic Policy and the Informal Sector
• 7 When More Can Be Less: Labor Standards, Development, and the Informal Economy
• 8 Informality, de Soto Style: From Concept to Policy
• 9 Inside Informal Sector Policies in Latin America: An Economist's View
• III Micro Level Intervention Issues
• 10 The Role of Governments and Private Institutions in Addressing the Informal Sector in Latin America
• 11 Training and Technical Assistance for Small and Microenterprise: A Discussion of Their Effectiveness
• IV A Closer Look at Poverty, Planning, and Power
• 12 Informality and Poverty: Causal Relationship or Coincidence?
• 13 Transaction Costs, Formal Plans, and Formal Informality: Alternatives to the Informal "Sector"
• V Conclusion
• 14 Contrapunto: Policy, Research, and the Role of the State
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Author Index
• Subject Index

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The informal sector, however defined, is large and growing in most, if not all, nations. Yet the policy debate concerning the informal sector has been conducted almost entirely in reference to Latin American nations. As this book demonstrates, the informal sector debate is often conducted in an atmosphere of embarrassment. If the existence of the informal sector is admitted, does this recognition automatically suggest a failure of both the public and private sectors? From a policy perspective, should the informal sector be left alone, encouraged, or eliminated? These and other intriguing questions are addressed in informative and occasionally passionate contributions from a diverse group of experts. Rakowski concludes the book with one of her own contributions--a chapter on policy, in which she notes some surprising agreement on facts and recommended policy options. Overall, this volume is an excellent introduction to the informal sector and related policy issues. The lengthy bibliography would be a good starting point for further research on the topic. Highly recommended. All levels. J. T. Peach; New Mexico State University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Cathy A. Rakowski teaches in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology and the Center for Women's Studies at The Ohio State University.