Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SECTOR
Clementina Ivan-Ungureanu
Training: Essential SNA: Building the basics
Addis Ababa, 13-16 February 2012
Characteristics of informal
sector
Big diversity
- By countries, different regions within the same
country, different parts of the same city.;
- Different activities, different types of enterprise,
- Different reasons for participating.
• Definition
• Measurement methods
Definition
The 2008 SNA definition
The informal sector may be broadly characterized
as consisting of units engaged in the production
of goods or services with the primary objective
of generating employment and incomes for the
persons concerned. These units typically
operate at a low level of organization, with little
or no division between labour and capital as
factors of production and on a small scale.
Labour relations - where they exist - are based
mostly on casual employment, kinship or
personal and social relations rather than
contractual arrangements with formal
guarantees
The 2008 SNA definition
- Production units have the characteristic of household
enterprises.
- The fixed and other assets used do not belong to the
production units as such but to their owners; capital
goods such as buildings or vehicles may be used for
business and household purposes
- The units as such cannot engage in transactions or
enter into contracts with other units
- The owners have to raise the necessary finance at
their own risk and are personally liable, without limit,
for any debts or obligations;
- Expenditure for production is often indistinguishable
from household expenditure
Criteria to identify the
informal sector
General essential criteria:
NPISH
INFORMAL
SECTOR
Objective
to monitor the evolution of informal sector
employment and informal employment in
terms of the number and characteristics of
the persons involved and the conditions of
their employment and work.
Main surveys:
1.1LFS
1.2 HIES
1. 1 LFS
Measurement Objectives
– Monitor evolution of IS employment
– Presents characteristics of employees,
employment conditions
– Data on labour inputs can be used in
conjunction with informal sector surveys to
extrapolate data on other characteristics,
e.g. value-added
1.1 LFS (cont)
• Methodological Considerations
– Additional questions or module to LFS
– Ask all people employed during reference period
– Ask in respect of both main and secondary jobs
– Probing questions needed for often unreported
activities, e.g. unpaid work, women’s own-
account/home-based activities, secondary
activities of farmers, government officials, formal
sector employees
1. 1 LFS (cont)
• Limitations/Concerns
– Seasonality
– Data about informal sector enterprises
versus informal sector entrepreneurs
– Estimation of number and characteristics of
informal sector enterprises is not possible
– Disaggregation by economic activity
depends on the sample size and design
1. 2 HIES
• Measurement Objectives
- HH demand for goods and services produced in
the informal sector
• Methodological considerations
- Data on each expenditure item
• Limitations/Concerns
-Provide household final consumption, not total
demand
- Not separation between informal and formal
expenditures
2. Enterprise surveys
Objective: to monitor the number and
characteristics of the informal sector units.
Provide:
-the number and characteristics of the
businesses involved;
-their production activities, income generation,
and fixed capital;
- the conditions and constraints under which
they operate;
- their organizations and relationships with the
formal sector, etc
2. Enterprise surveys (cont)
Methodological considerations
– Prerequisite: sampling frame
– List frame often not available or do
not cover household enterprises
– Establishment or economic censuses
can be used as list frame or sampling
frame
2. Enterprise surveys (cont)
• Limitation
- Do not cover households activities
- Do not present the diversity and mobility of
informal sector activities
- Depend on the BR quality
- High costs,
- Possible overlaps and /or failure to capture
enterprises such as in-home food
processing, ambulant trade, construction
3. Mixed household and
enterprise surveys
This approach includes:
3.1 The modular approach: informal sector
attached to household survey (mixed HH
and enterprise surveys)
3.2 The stand-alone approach: informal
sector survey designed as an independent
survey
3.3 Integrated approach: informal sector
surveys as part of a survey system
designed to meet several objectives
3.1 Modular approach
Objective:
To monitoring trends in the informal sector
over time, if the base survey (the
household survey) is conducted regularly
and an informal sector module is
attached at sufficiently frequent intervals
3.1 Modular approach (cont)
• Methodological Considerations
-ISS sample is a sub-sample of the HH survey
(LFS or HIES)
- Conducted simultaneously or consecutively
- Allows regular/sustainable IS data collection
- Have a complete coverage and identification of
IS entrepreneurs in the sample of HH
- Information on informal sector can be linked to
other data from the HH survey
3.1 Modular approach (cont)
Limitations:
- Need for a suitable base survey (survey
operations and response burden)
- Frequency/reference period of base
survey
- Base survey samples are not selected
for informal sector purposes
3.2. The stand-alone approach:
Independent IS survey
• Objective
Provide information concerning:
- Production of informal sector by activities and
size
- Employers/own-account workers in informal
sector classified by activity/type of work place
- Concentration of small establishments;
- Income/socio-economic data of informal
sector
3.2. The stand-alone approach:
Independent IS survey (cont)
Methodological considerations
A multi-stage design
• (i) selection of areas (census enumeration areas)
as primary sampling units;
• (ii) listing or interviewing of all households in the
sample areas;
• (iii) selection of sample households with owners
of informal sector enterprises (household
unincorporated enterprises with some market
production)
• (iv) interview of sample householders and
enterprise owners
3.2. The stand-alone approach:
Independent IS survey (cont)
Limitations
- High cost of survey operations,
- Quality of listing (type of activity, basic
characteristics data needed for
stratification)
- Complex survey operations : sample
design, sample weighting and
estimation procedures estimation
procedures, qualified survey staff ,
sound training of interviewers, etc.).
3.3. Integrated approach:
informal sector surveys
Objectives:
- data collection for the informal sector,
- labour force characteristics,
- household income and expenditure, etc.
This approach is especially useful for
countries that do not have a regular
household survey to which an informal
sector survey can be attached
Integrated “1-2”survey
Objective:
• To measure both informal sector and informal
sector employment
Agri- Non
Non Agricultural Non Agricultural
cultural agricultural
agricultural activities agricultural activities
activities activities
activities activities
Numbe r of surve ys o n the info rma l se c to r a c ro ss c o untrie s a nd me tho ds of
da ta c o lle c tio n