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Cover image of The Informal Economy
Cover image of The Informal Economy
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The Informal Economy

Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries

edited by Alejandro Portes, Manuel Castells, and Lauren A. Benton
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A New York roofer requests payment in cash. A Bogota car mechanic sets up "shop" on a quiet side street. Four Mexican immigrants assemble semiconductors in a San Diego home. A Leningrad doctor sells needed medicine to a desperate patient. All are part of a growing worldwide phenomenon that is widely known but little understood. The informal or underground economy is thriving today, not only in the Third World countries where it was first reported and studied but also in Eastern Europe and the developed nations of the West.

The Informal Economy is the first book to bring together studies from...

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A New York roofer requests payment in cash. A Bogota car mechanic sets up "shop" on a quiet side street. Four Mexican immigrants assemble semiconductors in a San Diego home. A Leningrad doctor sells needed medicine to a desperate patient. All are part of a growing worldwide phenomenon that is widely known but little understood. The informal or underground economy is thriving today, not only in the Third World countries where it was first reported and studied but also in Eastern Europe and the developed nations of the West.

The Informal Economy is the first book to bring together studies from all three of these settings and to integrate them into a coherent theoretical framework. Taking an international perspective, the authors dispel a number of misconceptions about the informal economy. They make clear, for instance, that it is not solely a province of the poor. Cutting across social strata, it reflects a political and economic realignment between employers and workers and a shift in the regulatory mission of the government. Throughout, the authors' theoretical observations serve not only to unify material from diverse sources but also to map out directions for further research.

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Reviews

The Informal Economy makes it clear that the economic arrangements recorded in official statistics are not the only ones worth studying.

— Nancy Foner, Science

[An] intensely interesting and readable set of case studies... The 'moving boundaries' of definition make is possible to include an extraordinary diversity of materials from the cocaine economy of Bolivia to the vibrant small-firm economy of the Italiam 'Red belt,' from Malaysia to Mexico City to Miami and New York. There are interesting data on informal personal incomes and outlays of the Soviet population, and an essay on the 'informalization' of the British economy under Thatcherism.

— Lisa R. Peattie , Studies in Comparative International Development
About

Book Details

Publication Date
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Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
360
ISBN
9780801837364
DOI
Subject
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Overview
Chapter 1. World Underneath: The Origins, Dynamics, and Effects of the Informal Economy
Part II. Urban Labor Markets
Chapter 2. Employment Structure, Life

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Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Overview
Chapter 1. World Underneath: The Origins, Dynamics, and Effects of the Informal Economy
Part II. Urban Labor Markets
Chapter 2. Employment Structure, Life Cycle, and Life Chances: Formal and Informal Sectors in Guadalajara
Chapter 3. New York's Informal Economy
Chapter 4. Informal Sector versus Informalized Labor Relations in Uruguay
Chapter 5. The Articulation of Formal and Informal Sectors in the Economy of Bogotá, Colombia
Chapter 6. Miami's Two Informal Sectors
Part III. Black Money, Black Markets
Chapter 7. Cocaine, Informality, and the Urban Economy in La Paz, Bolivia
Chapter 8. Informal Personal Incomes and Outlays of the Soviet Urban Population
Part IV. Industrial Restructuring and the Informal Sector
Chapter 9. Subcontracting and Employment Dynamics in Mexico City
Chapter 10. The Informal Economy and the Development of Flexible Specialization in Emilia-Romagna
Chapter 11. Informalization in the Valencian Economy: A Model for Underdevelopment
Chapter 12. Industrial Subcontracting and the Informal Sector: The Politics of Restructuring in the Madrid Electronics Industry
Part V. The Informal Sector and the State
Chapter 13. Informalization at the Core: Hispanic Women, Homework, and the Advanced Capitalist State
Chapter 14. Industrial Development, Ethnic Cleavages, and Employment Patterns: Penang State, Malaysia
Chapter 15. The "British Experiment": Structural Adjustment or Accelerated Decline?
Conclusion
List of Contributors
Index

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Author Bios
Alejandro Portes
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Alejandro Portes

Alejandro Portes is John Dewey Professor of Sociology and International Relations at the Johns Hopkins Unievrsity. His previous books include Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States; Labor, Class, and the International System; and Urban Latin America.
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Featured Contributor

Manuel Castells

Manuel Castells is professo of planning at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of fifteen books, including The Economic Crisis and American Society.
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Featured Contributor

Lauren A. Benton

Lauren A. Benton is a former member of the faculty in the department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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