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Motivated by the growing levelof informal economy in emerging economies, this study examines the role of the informal economy in the ecological footprint for the case of Africa. The relationship between official economy, trade openness, governance indicator, financial development, and urbanization on ecological footprint is also investigated. Applying data from 1991 to 2017, this empiric utilizes panel estimation procedures to account for cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in panel data. The results establish the presence of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity across countries in Africa. Furthermore, long-run cointegration is confirmed using Westerlund panel cointegration. Driscoll-Kraay’s (DK) estimation technique shows that informal economy, official economy, governance, financial development, and urbanization have significant positive impacts on ecological footprint, implying that they contribute to environmental degradation. However, trade openness has a negative and significant effect on ecological footprint, improving environmental quality. Similarly, the Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) Granger causality test reveals a two-way relationship between the informal economy and ecological footprint and formal economy and ecological footprint. However, the study finds a one-way connection from urbanization and financial development to ecological footprint and from ecological footprint to governance indicators and trade openness. The implications of the findings for a sustainable environment are discussed.

The shadow economy’s size and impact remain subjects of extensive research and debate, holding significant implications for economic policy and social welfare. In Lebanon, the ongoing crisis since 2019 has exacerbated severe economic challenges, with the national currency’s collapse, bank crisis, and foreign reserve deficits. The World Bank reports Lebanon’s financial deficit surpassed $72 billion, three times the GDP in 2021. Despite a drastic decline in GDP, imports have surged to near-pre-crisis levels, exacerbating economic woes and indicating a constant outflow of foreign currencies. Considering such contracting facts, this paper aims to investigate global factors influencing the shadow economy and discern their manifestations in Lebanon during financial crises. Our methodology involves a comprehensive literature review, alongside a case study approach specific to Lebanon. This dual-method strategy ensures a detailed understanding of the shadow economy’s impact and the development of actionable insights for policy and economic reform. Through this approach, we seek to contribute to a nuanced understanding of Lebanon’s economic landscape and provide valuable guidance for policy decisions aimed at reducing corruption, promoting transparency, and fostering a robust formal economy. The increase in the shadow economy raises the formal economy risk, as resources and activities diverted to informal channels hinder the growth and stability of the official economic sector. Although focusing on Lebanon, this analysis deepens the comprehension of the economic landscape and provides valuable guidance for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders, aiming to address the root causes of informal economic activities and promote sustainable growth in developing countries in general.

This study examines how the coexistence of shadow and formal economies under strong and weak institutional quality affects sustainable development using 37 African economies covering an 18-year period, from 2010 to 2017. Employing a dynamic panel Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model, the results show that (i) both shadow and formal economies individually contribute positively to sustainable development although the effect of the formal economy is higher compared to shadow economy and (ii) shadow and formal economies are substitutes although substituting shadow economy with formal economy yields more desirable outcome on sustainable development especially in the long-run and under strong institutional setups. The results imply that policymakers must endeavor to engage in policies that strengthen institutional quality to reinforce the replacement of shadow economies with the formal economy in order to ensure a positive and lasting effect on sustainable development in both the short-run and long-run in Africa. The results are robust to time, technological, and country effects. The originality of this study lies in its unique analysis of how shadow and formal economies interact to influence sustainable development in Africa, while considering the moderating role of institutional quality and using adjusted net national savings as a comprehensive sustainability measure.

Purpose Several studies have examined the effect of formal economy (usually proxy by economic growth) on environmental quality; however, the symmetric and asymmetric impact of the informal economy on environmental quality has not been examined in Nigeria. Therefore, this study aims to explore the short- and long-run (a)symmetric effect of formal and informal economies and financial development on Nigeria’s environmental quality between 1984 and 2017. Design/methodology/approach The study uses ecological footprint to measure environmental quality. An increase in ecological footprint suggests a fall in environmental quality. Informal economy is calculated as a percentage of GDP using the currency demand approach. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), nonlinear ARDL cointegration framework and vector error correction granger causality are used as estimation techniques. Findings The study’s outcomes establish the existence of asymmetric structure in the link between economic activities and the environment both in the short and long run. The asymmetric results reveal that positive and negative changes in the formal economy increase the ecological footprint in both periods. Hence, activities in the formal economy reduce environmental quality. On the other hand, positive and negative changes in the informal economy only positively influence the ecological footprint in the long run. In contrast, it negatively impacts the ecological footprint in the short run. This suggests that activities in the informal economy worsen the long-run environmental quality. Financial development has a positive influence on the ecological footprint, thus degrading the environmental quality. Furthermore, in the short run, a unidirectional relationship from the formal economy to the ecological footprint, while a bidirectional causality exists between informal and formal economies. Meanwhile, a unidirectional causality from the (in)formal economies and financial development to the ecological footprint was found in the long run. Practical implications The outcome of this study shows that both informal and formal economies contribute to ecological footprint; therefore, mainstreaming the informal economy into the formal economy will further increase the problem of environmental degradation and worsen environmental quality. Originality/value The study investigates the symmetric and asymmetric effect of formal and informal economies on environmental quality in Nigeria, which is largely missing in the empirical literature.

The informal retail sector has employed a lot of underprivileged people for about two decades in South Africa. Consequently, the informal retail sector is one of the significant contributors to local economic development in township and rural areas. Formal retail centres (shopping centres/malls) tend to create competition that small local businesses fail to compete with them. Using qualitative research methodology, pro-market local economic development was adopted as a lens to guide this study. The study aimed to explore the roles of formal retail centres (Ndwedwe Boxer Centre) on local economic development, considering the overarching unemployment rates in rural areas. The study used the case study method, based at Ndwedwe Municipality ward-15, iLembe District. The study sampled 10 informal traders (street hawkers, taxi drivers, and spaza shop owners). Retail-based development in community development has been overlooked; thus, the significance of this paper is its contribution to the discipline’s body of knowledge. Moreover, over the past decade, rural and township areas have been experiencing the emergence of formal retail centres. Thus, their role in the economy is worth research. The findings suggest that formal retail centres have a significant role in job creation for the local youth, diversifying goods and services, infrastructural development, and rural development.

IntroductionThe constant increase on the psychosocial demands experienced at work seems to contribute to the increase in health problems such as musculoskeletal pain (MSP). This association may be especially important in low-income and middle-income countries, where there is a large proportion of informal workers among whom there is little research. We analysed the association between psychosocial work risk factors and MSP among formal and informal workers using the First Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health.MethodsThis is a representative sample (n=12 024) of the economically active population of the six Spanish-speaking countries of Central America. Prevalence ratios (PR) and corresponding 95% CIs from Poisson regression models were used to estimate the association between psychosocial work risk factors and the MSP.ResultsCompared with formal workers, informal workers reported higher prevalence of MPS in the body regions analysed (ie, cervicodorsal, lumbosacral, upper extremities) and higher exposure to psychosocial work risk factors. However, on the whole, the associations between the exposure to psychosocial work risk factors and the prevalence of MSP were similar for both formal and informal workers. Only the association between exposure to high demands and MSP in the upper extremities was higher (p=0.012) among formal (PR=1.69, 95% CI 1.46 to 1.96) than among informal workers (PR=1.40; 95% CI 1.30 to 1.51).ConclusionExposure to adverse levels of psychosocial work risk factors is associated with higher prevalence of MPS among both formal and informal workers. However, the role of employment informality in this association is complex and requires further examination.

PurposeWe raise and address an unexamined research question: Why do managers place some business activities in the formal economy and others in the informal? This firm-level managerial choice is most visible in emerging economies and is important due to its performance implications.Design/methodology/approachWe theorize that managers use social ties with formal institutions (e.g. parliament, central bank) to protect against (1) being singled out for enforcement and (2) opportunistic business partners, and that these protections allow managers to conduct more activities in the informal economy. Based on regulatory focus theory, we also submit that managers with a promotion (prevention) focus mindset are more (less) prone to use their social ties with formal institutions to emphasize the informal economy. Hypotheses are tested using survey data from 362 Lebanese top managers.FindingsManagers' social ties with formal institutions relate positively to their propensity to use the informal economy, and managers with a promotion mindset are more willing and those with a prevention mindset are less willing to leverage their social ties with formal institutions to conduct activities in the informal economy.Originality/valueOur study raises an important new research question at the intersection of strategic and international management and offers an initial answer. Working within the informal economy requires informal social ties among informal actors, but for formally registered firms, entry into the informal economy requires informal ties with formal actors.

This study aims to document, describe, and examine how the informal prison economy is mediated. It is argued that, in part, it is the prison's internal micro bureaucratic capitalism that gives rise to its informal economy. The data discussion draws on ethnographic observation, interviews with inmates, ex-convicts, and prison officers. The paper also makes use of newspapers and internet-based news articles on prisons in Ghana. The data was analysed based on themes and patterns. The analysed data showed that the informal prison economy was antithetical yet symbiotic with the formal bureaucracy. And that the illicit economy was a product of a poorly managed system that enabled ordinary staff members to engage in corrupt practices without fear of negative sanctions. The role of the informal prison economy in the lives of inmates was enormous-ranging from family sustenance, de-facto health insurance, hiring of legal services to say the least. The paper concludes that the informal economy has become habituated and has taken on a life of its own; to the extent that it has become resistant to administrative control.

This paper explores the issue of ‘re-making’ corporate law through the prism of the United Nations’ recent efforts at reducing legal obstacles experienced by micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises in starting and scaling a business. In order to be fully successful, this paper suggests that the UN should go back to business fundamentals and should attempt to build from the ground up based on the real world needs of entrepreneurs, rather than work off already existing corporate legal systems. In this way, it is possible to engage in a more imaginative form of regulatory design in which a clear, open and preferential legal framework for stimulating innovation and business creation can be developed.

Purpose Recent changes in the UK to the regulation and modes of work in the formal and informal economies are considered. Research in this field has tended to remain in silos (treating formal economy working conditions separately from research on the informal economy). The question is whether the means of work and benefits to the worker for formal and informal work are now as different as the former images of formal and informal economy work imply under a “jobs-for-life” economy. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the current aim of government regulation of the informal economy – to formalise it – is actually of benefit to workers, as might be supposed. Design/methodology/approach This paper considers recent research findings on the formal and informal economy, using official government statistics for the UK and more detailed European studies on the informal economy. Findings This paper argues that formal employment in the UK is becoming more casualised, with less associated benefits to employees. Though it is still of benefit to the state to formalise informal work (to increase tax take), some of the links between formalisation and a good working environment for workers are being broken, which may lead to the informal economy becoming more popular and requiring different priorities in its regulation. Originality/value This paper argues that we need to change our assumptions and image of work in the formal economy, compared to that in the informal economy.