Growth Of Informal Sector Research Articles

Estimating and forecasting suppressed electricity demand in Ghana under climate change, the informal economy and sector inefficiencies

Suppressed demand arises from inadequate energy access, resulting in unmet basic needs. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of the informal economy, rising temperatures, and electricity transmission losses on suppressed demand in Ghana from 2000 to 2020, using a quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) approach. The study forecasts suppressed demand using Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios, offering insights for energy system planning. The results indicate that all the variables significantly affect suppressed demand in the mid-quantiles. Notably, transmission losses and growth of informal economy variables significantly impact suppressed demand within the 50th to 75th quantiles but have minimal impact before the 50th and after the 75th quantiles in the long run. Additionally, rising temperatures substantially increase suppressed demand by increasing electricity demand for cooling. All future scenarios project this growth trend will continue through 2050, albeit at varying rates. In the business-as-usual (BAU) case, suppressed demand is expected to steadily increase from 1782 MW in 2020 to 8636 MW in 2050. This trajectory aligns well with historical growth trends, which saw suppressed demand increase from 659 GWh to 1782 GWh between 2000 and 2020. SSP scenarios suggest that suppressed demand could grow substantially through 2050, driven by high losses and informal sector growth. Despite sustainable development narratives like SSP1, suppressed demand remains high without major grid and governance improvements. Comparing the results with past studies shows that our findings align with previous research but provide more nuanced insights by incorporating the effects of the informal economy and using advanced forecasting techniques. Practical policy implications include investing in green infrastructure, upgrading grid infrastructure, and formalising the informal economy to alleviate suppressed demand. These actions are critical for sustainable energy access and meeting future electricity needs effectively.

The impacts of the informal economy, climate migration, and rising temperatures on energy system planning

This study aims to investigate the impacts of the informal economy, climate migration and temperature changes on energy demand and long-term urban energy system planning. The elasticity of energy demand to changes in the size of the informal sector, urban population and mean temperature is estimated for the case study city of Accra, Ghana. Elasticities are then applied to estimate energy demand under different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). An energy system optimization model analyzes SSP impacts on energy planning. Accra's energy demand is found to be most elastic to climate change-induced migration and rising temperatures; for example, energy demand is up to 43% higher in 2050 in a worst-case scenario compared to the base case. These factors will exacerbate the city's ability to meet its sustainability targets and manage informal sector growth. Photovoltaics, waste CCP and decarbonization of the transportation sector through electrification are found to be critical solution pathways for Accra to meet rising demand while supporting sustainability objectives. However, significant local distribution grid upgrades are required to support these technologies' rollout. Overall, this work demonstrates the importance and value of incorporating climate migration, rising temperature and informal sector analysis in energy planning models and decision-making processes, particularly in low and middle-income countries that are the most vulnerable to climate change. Although the approach is demonstrated on Accra, it can be applied at other scales and scopes globally.

Assessing SMEs leadership styles impact on business development and job creation: Evidence from Ghana

Unemployment is a growing concern for today’s economies. Governments gear various policies to increase business productivity and expansion to create new job places. However, little research was conducted on how informal sector leadership contributes to resolving this crisis worldwide. This study seeks to identify the SME leadership styles that foster business development and job creation in Ghana. The study targets the leadership styles of artisans and manufacturers of local goods. Mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) where both questionnaire and interview were used to gather information from a total of one hundred and twenty respondents; sixty proprietors were artisans and the remaining were managers of local factories. The paper adopts SPSS and the Pearson correlation in the data analysis. The study determined emotional intelligence and ethical leadership regarded as emerging leadership styles the best for informal sector growth. However, bureaucratic leadership, autocratic and laissez-faire leadership referred to as traditional leadership styles had no positive influence on growth indicators within the informal economy. The results also reveal that most SMEs fold up before the fifth year of their establishment, deepening the unemployment situation in the research communities. The paper further confirms the inadequate resources of most SME leaders to take up leadership training. Therefore, the study recommends that government should periodically organize and finance workshops and seminars to facilitate SMEs access to leadership training and development in Ghana.

The Social Factors that Influence Growth of Women owned Businesses in the Informal Sector in Kenya: A Case of Women Street Vendors in Bungoma town, Bungoma District

This study was set to investigate the social factors that influence the growth of the women owned Small Enterprises in Kenya, A case study of women roadside traders in Bungoma town, Bungoma West District. The specific objectives of the study were to identify these social factors and determine those that influence growth of these women owned roadside enterprises. The study also explained why these women chose to operate along roadsides and other open areas. The social factors included level of education, age bracket, family size and marital status, training and previous occupation of the women entrepreneurs. The factors investigated, some were deemed to stimulate growth while others inhibited the rates of growth of informal sector so much so that these enterprises do not break into the domain of small-medium and large enterprises sector usually referred to as the missing-middle. Studies done earlier also indicated that there is an influx of women entrepreneurs into the informal sector because of low yields and shrinking farm sizes. The research revealed that half of these women were married and had families and 84 percent of them had not been employed before, most of the women entrepreneurs had no training or previous skills in the business they were engaging in, 60 percent o f the women entrepreneurs were within the productive prime age of between 24 years to 45 years. The study therefore revealed that social factors have a diverse effect on the growth of the women owned informal enterprises.

Implementation of Urban Green Space System using Geo-informatics

Worsening condition of our urban life such as uncontrolled growth of informal sector, destruction of the environment and abuse of ecological assets like water bodies and stretches of land have rendered cities in India in a regrettable state. A radical change in the development plan of open spaces in India can make it an eco-sensitive and a sustainable, urbanized center. A green space system is an essential ingredient of an urban ecosystem. Green space system planning and construction provides a crucial method for sustainable urban construction in India. Functions of an open space-turned-green space system essentially include protection, productivity, and recreation. This paper proposes sustainable urban green space system planning based on Geographic Information Systems, in order to provide experience for construction of sustainable cities in India. Combining ecological technology, water management systems, wastewater treatment technology and urban slow transport system people can utilize green space systems as an ecological, urban low carbon treatment facility as well as leisure and entertainment facility.

Pemberdayaan Usaha Kecil Menengah (UKM)/Usaha Rumah Tangga (URT) Kerajinan Kulit di Kabupaten Bantul Yogyakarta

<span><em>Growth of Informal Sector UKM/URT leather so far has been getting </em><span><em>the attention of the government , but not enough attention is because it has not </em><span><em>touched the substance of empowering UKM/URT as part of the global economic </em><span><em>system. This is because coordination, focus and formulation of each department </em><span><em>tends to rule out a profitable strategy UKM/URT, but more nuanced political or </em><span><em>business-oriented on the other side. Growth of UKM/URT themselves usually stop </em><span><em>at the base phase where after working through internships (replication) for a bold </em><span><em>new step on their own (work Independently) goes directly compete and survive. </em><span><em>This method is very common UKM/URT for this so that UKM/URT less have a </em><span><em>comparative advantage, because it is still a single fighter for all matters both for the </em><span><em>production, management, marketing, etc. In fact, everything is done the traditional </em><span><em>(manual, non-corporated). Under these conditions, the role of government and </em><span><em>business associations are expected to be suporting system is vital for UKM/URT. T</em><span><em>hus, in the era of regional autonomy of local governments should empower UKM/</em><span><em>URT as the main pillars of the regional economy. The role of business associations </em><span><em>are not limited to the expected orientation solely capital adequacy but also to think </em><span><em>of innovation, improvement of production systems, design, quality control, </em><span><em>management, marketing systems, as well as having a dual role that regulate the </em><span><em>production and marketing systems, including the progressively explore marketing</em><span><em>. Until this approach is necessary as a form of cultural and structural dynamics of </em><span><em>society from an agrarian society to a modern society that direction must inevitably </em><span><em>be faced by society as a whole is not denied even occur in all sectors of development.</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span>

The crisis of the core seen through the eyes of the periphery: A Schelling model of the global-south megacity and the European crisis

Adapting Schelling?s checker-board discrimination framework, we develop a disequilibrium model to examine growth in two core-periphery settings: global-South megacities and the Eurozone. Regarding megacities, informal sector growth undercuts the government?s capacity to fund fully adequate public services. Regarding the Eurozone, an increase in the relative size of the periphery will - under the government?s balanced-budget constraint - undercut the provision of public safety-net and infrastructure services. And if low-wage production is initiated in the European periphery, the core is likely to collapse. ?Urbanization is decisive because it is so expensive. The difference between the costs of urban development and rural development does not turn on comparing the capital required for factories and that required for farms. Each of these is a small part of total investment, and the difference per head is not always in favor of industry. The difference turns on infrastructure.? W. Arthur Lewis (1977, pp. 39-40).

Epidemiological Surveillance of Informal Workers' Health in Two Cities in Southeastern Brazil

Informal labor markets have grown in peripheral countries, accounting for more than 50% of jobs. There is anecdotal evidence of a direct relation between informal sector growth and an increase in the frequency and severity of work-related diseases and injuries. Two sister pilot projects were conducted in Uberaba and Campinas, Brazil to develop population-based epidemiological surveillance of workplace injuries in the informal sector. Results for Campinas and Uberaba found cumulative yearly incidences of 5.1% and 10.4%, with incidence rates of 2.2 and 6.5 injuries per 100,000 worked hours, respectively. The proportions of lost work time were 0.3% and 0.31%. Rates found were comparable to those found in the literature for both formal and informal jobs. These results suggest that bad working conditions in the formal labor market are replicated in the informal market as subcontracting and outsourcing contribute to the growth of informal jobs.

Labor Market Rigidities and Informality in Colombia

Labor Market Rigidities and Informality in Colombia Camilo Mondragón-Vélez (bio), Ximena Peña (bio), and Daniel Wills (bio) Informality has been at the center of the economic debate in Colombia as a result of the high levels prevalent in the country and its substantial increase during the 1990s. The informal sector includes a range of heterogeneous activities, from unpaid labor to a number of unregulated salaried jobs. Informality is thought to have negative implications, mainly through inferior working conditions, lack of formal health, unemployment, and old age insurance, and low productivity levels for firms. Alternative definitions of informality have been proposed in the literature, each implying a different approach to this phenomenon. The Colombian labor market is characterized by high nonwage costs and a high minimum wage relative to the economy's level of productivity. Nonwage costs are costs faced by the employer and include health and pension contributions, payroll taxes, and transportation (commuting) subsidies.1 These labor market rigidities imply that the formal sector, where workers and employers comply with regulations, is less able to adjust to the business cycle than the informal sector. Hence, economic policy originally designed to protect workers might actually be worsening employment conditions by increasing informality. This paper brings new elements to the study of informality in Colombia and suggests directions for future research. We study the evolution of informality between 1984 and 2006—a period that includes both expansions and [End Page 65] recessions, structural reforms of the labor market, and significant variation in nonwage costs and the minimum wage. By generating individual or city-level variation, we are able to disentangle the effects of nonwage costs, the minimum wage, and the business cycle on informality. We begin our analysis by considering alternative definitions of informality, two of which we adopt (primarily driven by data availability): the definition used by Colombia's National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE, for its initials in Spanish), which is based on firm size and occupation, and a definition based on contribution to health insurance (as a proxy for compliance with labor market regulations). With regard to the empirical analysis, we first estimate the probability of being informal as a function of individual characteristics, the business cycle, and labor market rigidities. Our results suggest that rises in nonwage costs and the minimum wage are highly correlated with informal sector growth. Next, we look at the transitions between sectors. On the one hand, we measure the transition flows between the formal and informal sectors using transition matrices. These describe, for example, the proportion of job destruction in the formal sector that is absorbed by the informal sector. On the other hand, we estimate the effect of labor market rigidities on the likelihood of switching sectors (controlling for idiosyncratic characteristics and macroeconomic conditions), to determine their role in the decision to make the transition. We find that labor market rigidities are important drivers of the transition into informality, particularly for low-skilled workers. However, further research is needed to understand the channels through which labor market rigidities affect the transition into the formal sector, in particular for workers with high educational attainment. One strand of the literature associates informality with labor market rigidities in Colombia. Núñez finds a positive relation between informality and income taxes on labor revenue for the period 1988–98.2 Sánchez, Duque, and Ruíz find that increases in labor market rigidities increase informality, unemployment, and its duration, based on aggregate data.3 Using a firm panel from the industrial sector, Kugler and Kugler find that a 10 percent increase in payroll taxes decreases formal employment between 4 and 5 percent.4 Santa María, García, and Mujica use individual data from Colombia's household survey; they find that the subsidized regime, financed through nonwage costs, [End Page 66] has increased the incentives to become informal, thus acting as a subsidy to informality.5 Our results suggest that an increase of 10 percentage points in nonwage costs is associated with an increase of 5 to 8 percentage points in the size of the informal sector. Some authors characterize informal workers and study informality from a segmentation perspective. Flórez finds...

Opening the Pandora's box? Trade openness and informal sector growth

This article constructs a labour transition model combining the features of job loss and job creation in the formal sector of an economy. The theoretical model examines the impact of trade liberalization on net job transition from formal to informal sector. In the light of our model we establish certain pre-conditions based on simulations under which trade liberalization is accompanied by rising informal sector. The model outcome conforms to the empirical evidence of rising informality with openness which we find in 18 Central Eastern European and Former Soviet Union countries.

Disentangling the ‘grass roots’ in Tonga: ‘traditional enterprise’ and autonomy in the moral and market economy

Semi–subsistence sectors predominate throughout Pacific Island countries. But the nature of the social organisation that characterises them, remains generally unexamined. This paper introduces the concept of ‘traditional enterprise’, based on observations in Tonga, to help analytically illuminate the sector. It also investigates processes of household dynamics that lead to selective upward social mobility and the consequent fragmentation of the generalised peasant household. Better understanding of the basic units, goals and means of achieving them among the traditional, rural, or the ‘grass roots’ sectors should help the current developmentalist emphasis on informal sector growth.

Some Aspects of Informal Sector Growth in Orissa

This paper portrays the profile of the informal sector around National Aluminium Company (NALCO), a formal sector establishment, in the economically backward state of Orissa. It is observed that though the direct backward and forward linkages of the informal sector with NALCO are negligible, there are significant indirect linkages. Further, migration of entrepreneurs to industrial centres, not necessarily urban centres, is prompted by both 'pull' and 'push' factors. The paper also finds that the benefits of growth of informal activities will not accrue to the local population displaced due to the establishment of the formal sector company, if the entrepreneurs are predominantly migrants.

Interstate migration in Mexico: Variations on the Todaro theme

This study of migration in Mexico is based upon a modified Todaro approach and utilizes census data in a simultaneous equations model of 13 variables. It is unique in several ways: (a) it introduces proxy variables for employment probability and cost of migration that have not heretofore been found in the literature, but for which data are often available; (b) it illustrates that in some important cases census data have advantages not available through surveys; and (c) it finds that in some sense land reform in Mexico may have operated perversely. Finally, the study opens a new avenue for the study of informal sector growth.