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Entrepreneurship In The Informal Economy: Commercial Or Social Entrepreneurs?, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin
Entrepreneurship In The Informal Economy: Commercial Or Social Entrepreneurs?, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin
Colin C Williams
Recent research has revealed that a large proportion of entrepreneurs startup
their ventures operating on a wholly or partially off-the-books basis. Until now, it
has been commonly assumed that those who operate in the informal economy are
exclusively commercial entrepreneurs. They are assumed to be rational economic
actors who weigh up the benefits of operating off-the-books against the costs of
being caught and decide to operate in this manner. The aim of this paper is to
evaluate critically this a priori assumption. Reporting evidence from a 2005/6 survey
involving face-to-face interviews with 102 informal entrepreneurs in Moscow in
Russia, the …