POLICY APPROACHES TOWARD INFORMAL SECTOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP: AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

This paper reviews the policy options and measures available for tackling informal sector entrepreneurship. Four possible policy options are critically reviewed: doing nothing, eradicating informal entrepreneurship; eradicating formal entrepreneurship and formalizing informal entrepreneurship. Concluding that the latter is the most feasible option, policy measures for formalizing informal entrepreneurship are then reviewed. On the one hand, the range of policy measures that can be used by enforcement authorities (tax authorities, labor inspectorates and social security institutions) responsible for tackling informal entrepreneurship are evaluated. On the other hand, and to tackle the broader structural determinants of informal entrepreneurship, macro-level reforms are identified by evaluating critically the validity of the purported determinants proposed in the modernization, political economy, neo-liberal and neo-institutionalist theories. The outcome is an understanding of the full range of policy initiatives required by governments seeking to formalize informal sector entrepreneurship.