Main Mechanisms of Involvement in the Informal Employment of Various Socio-Demographic Population Groups

About the authors:

Anna N. Tarasova, Cand. Sci. (Soc.), Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Technology of State and Municipal Management, Ural Federal University (Yekaterinburg); ORCID: 0000-0002-9448-2893, Scopus Author ID: 57201826388, WoS ResearcherID: B-1811-2017, SPIN: 1228-4836, a.n.tarasova@urfu.ru

Elena V. Andrianova, Cand. Sci. (Soc.), Head of Department of General and Economic Sociology, Institute of Finance and Economics, University of Tyumen; Senior Researcher, West-Siberian Branch of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Tyumen); e.v.andrianova@utmn.ru; ORCID: 0000-0002-7769-9206

Abstract:

This article studies the problem of involving the population of Russia in informal employment. Based on analysis of social and demographic characteristics of informally busy workers and features of their labor motivation, the main mechanisms of involvement in informal employment are described. First of all, it is discrimination of workers, who are driven out of labor market, and the second reason is entrepreneurial intention to avoid expenses of “law-abiding”. Accordingly, each of these mechanisms constitutes specific cluster of informally busy workers. Specification of the clusters is also made. The empirical base of the work was the data of monitoring sociological surveys 2006-2016, with a sample size of at least 1,500 people. The representativeness of the research is guaranteed by the exact matching of the sample structure to the structure of the general population in terms of sex, age, type of settlement (town/village) and education. A sampling error of one criterion is less than 3%.

References:

1. Barsukova S. Yu. 2003. “Formal’noe i neformal’noe trudoustroystvo: paradoksal’noe skhodstvo na fone ochevidnogo razlichiya” [Formal and Informal Employment: Paradoxical Similarity against the Background of Obvious Differences]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, no. 7, pp. 3-15.
2. Gimpelson V., Kapeliushnikov R. (eds.). 2014. “V teni regulirovaniya: neformal’nost’ na rossiyskom rynke truda” [In the Shadow of Regulation: Informality in the Russian Labor Market]. Moscow: HSE.
3. Varshavskaya E., Donova I. 2003. “Neformal’naya zanyatost’: k portretu ‘izvestnoy neznakomki’” [Informal Employment: The Portrait of “An Unknown Woman”]. Chelovek i trud, no. 11, p. 45.
4. Gershoni J. 1999. “Byudzhety vremeni i neformal’naya ekonomicheskaya deyatel’nost’” [Budgets Time and Informal Economic Activity]. Neformal’naya ekonomika. Rossiya i mir, pp. 343-355. Moscow: Logos.
5. Gimpelson V. 2013. “Tret’ rossiyan predpochitayut ‘tenevoy’ trud” [Third of Russians Prefer “Shadow” Labor]. Higher school of Economics Official Website. https://iq.hse.ru/news/177669569.html (accessed on 20 October 2016).
6. De Soto E. 1995. “Inoy put’. Nevidimaya revolyutsiya v tret’em mire” [The Other Path. The Invisible Revolution in the “Third” World]. Translated from English. Moscow: Catallaxy.
7. Zaslavskaya T. I, Shabanova M. A. 2002. “Nepravovye trudovye praktiki i sotsial’nye transformatsii v Rossii” [Illegal Labor Practices and Social Transformations in Russia]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, no. 4, pp. 3-17.
8. Latov Yu. V. 2001. “Ekonomika vne zakona: ocherki po teorii i istorii tenevoy ekonomiki” [Outside the Law Economy: Essays on the Theory and History of Shadow Economy]. Moscow: Moscow Public Scientific Fund.
9. Malysheva E. 2016. “Samozanyatykh vyvedut iz teni” [Self-Employed Will Be Withdrawn from the Shadows]. Gazeta.ru, 17 February. https://www.gazeta.ru/business/2016/02/16/8077541.shtml (accessed on 20 October 2016).
10. Kommersant.ru. 2016. “Minfin i Rosstat raskhodyatsya v otsenkakh ob”ema serykh zarplat” [The Ministry of Finance and Rosstat Differ in Evaluation of the Volume of “Grey Wages”]. 17 October. http://kommersant.ru/doc/3118422 (accessed on 20 October 2016).
11. Tarasova A. N. 2004. “Sotsial’no-demograficheskie kharakteristiki neformal’no zanyatogo naseleniya na rynke truda g. Tyumeni” [Socio-Demographic Characteristics of Informal Employed Population in the Labour Market of Tyumen]. In: Sociology today: a mosaic of areas, approaches and methods, vol. 1, pp. 213-217. Samara: Univers-Grupp.
12. Hart K. 1999. “Neformal’nye dokhody i gorodskaya zanyatost’ v Gane” [Informal Income and Urban Employment in Ghana]. In: Shanin T. (ed.). Neformal’naya ekonomika. Rossiya i mir [The Informal Economy: Russia and the World], pp. 532-536. Moscow: Logos.
13. Bologna J. 2016. “The effect of informal employment and corruption on income levels in Brazil”. Journal of Comparative Economics, August 2016, no 44 (3), pp. 657-695. DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2015.12.001
14. Granovetter M. 1992. “The Sociological Approaches to Labor Market Analysis: A Social Structural View”. In: Granovetter M., Swedberg R. (eds.). The Sociology of Economic Life, pp. 233-257. Boulder: Westview Press.
15. Gutmann P. M. 1979. “Statistical Illusions, Mistaken Policies”. Challenge, vol. 6, no 22, pp. 14-17.
16. Magidimisha H. H., Gordon S. 2015. “Profiling South African Gender Inequality in Informal Self-Employment”. Journal of Gender Studies, 4 May 2015, no 24 (3), pp. 275-292. DOI: 10.1080/09589236.2013.841569
17. Sahoo B. K., Neog B. J. .2016. “Heterogeneity and Participation in Informal Employment among Non-Cultivator Workers in India”. International Review of Applied Economics, 19 November 2016, pp. 1-31. DOI: 10.1080/02692171.2016.1257584 [In Press]
18. Selwaness I., Zaki C. 2015. “Assessing the Impact of Trade Reforms on Informal Employment in Egypt”. Journal of North African Studies, 10 January 2015, p. 24. DOI: 10.1080/13629387.2014.997717 [In Press]
19. Portes A., Castells М., Benton L. A. (eds.). 1989. “The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries”, pp. 135-149. MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
20. Xue J., Gao W., Guo L. 2014. “Informal Employment and Its Effect on the Income Distribution in Urban China”. China Economic Review, 31 December 2014, pp. 84-93. DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2014.07.012