| 1. |
- Bali Swain, Ranjula, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Introduction
- 2022
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In: The Informal Sector and the Environment. - Abingdon : Routledge. - 9781003223856 - 9781032122663 - 9781032122687 ; , s. 1-15
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The informal sector is core to the growth and livelihoods of many economies and is seen as both a highly dynamic sector and a fragile one. It provides significant amounts of employment across the world but the quality of this employment is often problematic, with employment in this sector characterised by ‘small or undefined work places, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, low levels of skills and productivity, low or irregular incomes, long working hours and lack of access to information, markets, finance, training and technology’. As with all areas of regulatory control, there are two types of environmental regulation policies: command and control policies and economic incentives. Many studies suggest that informal economic activity should be formalised. Since pollution is an externality from production, government attempts to reduce it often take the form of taxes on pollutants and subsidies on the disposal of waste. This chapter presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
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| 2. |
- Bali Swain, Ranjula, 1968-, et al.
(author)
-
Regulation, governance and the role of the informal sector in influencing environmental quality
- 2022
-
In: The Informal Sector and the Environment. - Abingdon : Routledge. - 9781003223856 - 9781032122663 - 9781032122687 ; , s. 16-41
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- We investigate the effect of the informal sector and a range of governance indicators on both global and local pollutants for a panel of 58 countries during 1996–2011. The analysis employs a fixed effects-instrumental variable generalized method of moments approach. We find that the size of the informal sector has a significant impact on environmental quality, which is conditional on the level of economic development. For developing countries, the informal sector has a significant positive impact on local pollutants, whereas for the developed countries the informal sector has a significantly negative effect on global pollutants. The findings also reveal that the impact of governance depends on the type of governance measure, the level of economic development and the type of pollutant. Control of corruption emerges as the single most important factor, especially in the non-OECD countries, in improving environmental quality. We argue that the efficacy of an environmental policy for a country with a large informal sector will be low if the policy measures do not address governance, size of the informal sector and environmental policy targets.
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| 3. |
-
The Informal Sector and the Environment
- 2022
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Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The informal economy - broadly defined as economic activity that is not subject to government regulation or taxation - sustains a large part of the world's workforce. It is a diverse, complex and growing area of activity. However, being largely unregulated, its impact on the environment has not been closely scrutinised or analysed. This edited volume demonstrates that the informal sector is a major source of environmental pollution and a major reason behind the environmental degradation accompanying the expansion of economic activity in developing countries. Environmental regulation and economic incentive policies are difficult to implement in this sector because economic units are unregistered, geographically dispersed and difficult to identify. Moreover, given their limited capital base, they cannot afford to pay pollution fees or install pollution- abating equipment. Informal manufacturing units often operate under unscientific and unhealthy conditions, further contributing to polluting the environment. The book emphasizes and examines these challenges, and their solutions, encountered in various sectors of the informal economy, including urban waste pickers, small- scale farmers, informal workers, home- based workers, street vendors and more. If the informal sector is to "Leave no one behind" (as the Sustainable Development Goals promise) and contribute to "inclusive growth" (an objective of the green economy), then its impact on the economy as well as the environment has to be carefully considered. This book marks a significant contribution to the literature on both the informal economy and sustainable development, and will be of great interest to readers in economics, geography, politics, environment studies and public policy more broadly.
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