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Dr Kate Meagher CON 7.11

This course is available on the MRes/PhD in International Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course is only available to research students in other departments with permission from the course convener (space permitting).

The expansion of the informal economy, which now employs more than 60% of the world’s workers, represents a central paradox of contemporary development thinking. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the pervasive role of informal employment across the globe, as well as drawing attention to the importance of informal economic systems for social provisioning in times of crisis.  Practitioners, policy makers and academics seek a clearer understanding of the impact of informal economies on poverty, employment, governance and inclusive development. In a globalising environment, are large informal economies a poverty trap or an engine of growth? Do they stimulate entrepreneurship and popular empowerment, or promote criminality and exploitation? How does a greater understanding of the size and organization of informal economies affect policy on urban service provision, social protection or taxation? What are the implications of the informal economy for social cohesion and popular politics in the countries of the Global South?

This course will explore how high levels of informality are shaping processes of growth and governance in the Global South. The effect of informality on new policy narratives of inclusive growth will be a central theme in the course. Using a comparative institutional approach, we will examine informal economies in a range of regional contexts, including Africa, the Middle East, South and East Asia, and Latin America, highlighting variations in activities, relations with the state, linkages with the global economy, and development outcomes. Key issues covered in the course include the impact of the informal economy on labour markets, weak states, gender empowerment, urban services, the gig economy, social protection, taxation, and popular politics. Attention will be focused on the potential as well as risks of large informal economies in the face of contemporary development challenges, drawing on empirical evidence and comparative case studies from across the developing world.

This course is delivered through a combin