Evaluating working conditions in the informal economy: evidence from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey

Although it is widely held that working conditions in the informal economy are worse than in the formal economy, little evidence has been so far provided. The aim of this article is to fill this lacuna by comparing the working conditions of informal employees with formal employees using the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis provides a nuanced and variegated appreciation of which working conditions are worse for informal employees, which are no different, and which are better for informal than formal employees. The article concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications

Entrepreneurship in the informal economy: a product of too much or too little state intervention?

Over the past decade or so, two competing theoretical perspectives have arisen that explain participation in informal entrepreneurship as resulting from either too little or too much state intervention. To evaluate these competing explanations critically, the authors report on a 2012 UK survey of 595 small business owners. Twenty per cent of these owners said that they had traded informally when starting up their ventures, and the authors examine and evaluate their reasons for doing so. It was found that 41% of the entrepreneurs attributed their off-the-books trading to too little state intervention (for example, a lack of government advice and support), 35% to too much intervention (burdensome red tape, high taxes, etc) and 24% to a mix of both factors. However, a multivariate analysis displays significant socio-demographic, firm-level and regional variations in the reasons. The outcome is a call to move towards more nuanced context-bound explanations of entrepreneurship in the informal economy

Work orientations, well-being and job content of self-employed and employed professionals

Drawing on psychology-derived theories and methods, a questionnaire survey compared principal kinds of work orientation, job content and mental well-being between self-employed and organisationally employed professional workers. Self-employment was found to be particularly associated with energised well-being in the form of job engagement. The presence in self-employment of greater challenge, such as an enhanced requirement for personal innovation, accounted statistically for self-employed professionals’ greater job engagement, and self-employed professionals more strongly valued personal challenge than did professionals employed in an organisation. However, no between-role differences occurred in respect of supportive job features such as having a comfortable workplace. Differences in well-being, job content and work orientations were found primarily in comparison between self-employees and organisational non-managers. The study emphasises the need to distinguish conceptually and empirically between different forms of work orientation, job content and well-being, and points to the value of incorporating psychological thinking in some sociological research

Explaining cross-national variations in the commonality of informal sector entrepreneurship: an exploratory analysis of 38 emerging economies

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the contrasting explanations for the cross-national variations in the commonality of informal sector entrepreneurship. These variously view such work as: a result of economic underdevelopment (modernization thesis); driven by high taxes, corruption and state interference which lead them to exit the formal economy (neoliberal thesis), or a product of inadequate state intervention to protect workers from poverty (political economy thesis). Analyzing International Labour Organization data on the proportion of the non-agricultural workforce engaged in informal sector entrepreneurship in 38 emerging economies, and data on the economic and social conditions deemed important in each explanation, a tentative call is made to reject the neoliberal explanation and to synthesize the modernization and political economy perspectives. The outcome is a new ‘neo-modernization’ explanation that associates greater levels of informal sector entrepreneurship with economic underdevelopment and inadequate state intervention to protect workers from poverty. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications

Cities of Making: CityReport

Cities of making assesses the role and current state of manufacturing in three of Europe’s urban centres. Compiled by a consortium of partners in London, Brussels and Rotterdam it forms part of Cities of Making, a thirty-month programme exploring the future of urban based manufacturing in European cities. This report brings together insights about the current state of manufacturing in three European cities – Brussels, London and Rotterdam, each with a distinct industrial heritage. It aims to take a fresh and pragmatic look at the sector and in doing so highlight the challenges and opportunities faced in each of the cities, as well identifying potential for shared learning across the three.It identifies three key areas affecting the sector which warrant further investigation: governance and network models for supporting the sector; opportunities for harnessing resources and technology to develop more sustainable production; and spatial typologies for supporting modern urban manufacturing.OLD Urban Composition

Rethinking country effects: Robotics, AI and work futures in Norway and the UK

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Current debates around robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are dominated by concerns over the threat to employment, amid widely varying estimates of potential job losses. Countries are expected to fare differently, but there is little comparative research that goes beyond analysing industry and occupational structures. This article rethinks ‘country effects’ by exploring the role of institutions and social actors in shaping technological change in Norway and the UK. Drawing upon interviews with technology experts, employer associations and trade unions, it examines their perspectives on public policy support for the development and diffusion of robotics and AI, along with potential consequences for employment, work and skills. The research indicates significant country differences and the continued relevance of institutions, interests and power in analysing country effects