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2019 Annual Platform Survey: Tackling Undeclared In The Collaborative Economy And Bogus Self-Employment, Data Exchange And Data Protection, And Cross-Border Sanctions, Colin C. Williams Oct 2019

2019 Annual Platform Survey: Tackling Undeclared In The Collaborative Economy And Bogus Self-Employment, Data Exchange And Data Protection, And Cross-Border Sanctions, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

This survey collected information from EU Member States, as well as Iceland and Norway, on three issues:
 Tackling undeclared work in the collaborative economy and bogus self-employment.
 Data exchange and data protection.
 Cross-border sanctions.
Of the 28 Platform members from EU Member States as well as Iceland and Norway, 28 out of 30 responses were received. In addition, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) provided qualitative feedback on the role of social partners and their cooperation with enforcement authorities to tackle undeclared work in the areas covered by the survey.


Preventative Approaches For Tackling Undeclared Work, Focusing Upon Tax Rebates And Notification Letters: Learning Resource Paper For The European Platform Tackling Undeclared Work Seminar, Colin C. Williams May 2019

Preventative Approaches For Tackling Undeclared Work, Focusing Upon Tax Rebates And Notification Letters: Learning Resource Paper For The European Platform Tackling Undeclared Work Seminar, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Ÿ  Effective preventative approaches are long-term, tailored strategies. Over time, they can trigger behavioural change to declare work and increase trust in institutions. Preventative strategies should combine a range of measures and must be regularly tested, evaluated and adapted according to the results. Pilot schemes can be used to find effective ways to tailor approaches to the national context and culture. However, preventative approaches and deterrence approaches are complementary. Both can be used to tackle undeclared work.
Ÿ  Moving towards preventative measures requires a change of strategy of the role of enforcement institutions. A preventative approach requires support of all …


Diagnostic Report On Undeclared Work In Kosovo: Preliminary Report, Colin C. Williams Mar 2019

Diagnostic Report On Undeclared Work In Kosovo: Preliminary Report, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

This diagnostic report evaluates the extent, nature and drivers of undeclared work in Kosovo* followed by recommendations regarding how this sphere can be tackled


Diagnostic Report On Undeclared Work In Montenegro: Preliminary Report, Colin C. Williams Mar 2019

Diagnostic Report On Undeclared Work In Montenegro: Preliminary Report, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

The Montenegrin labour market is characterized by low activity of the working age population, relatively high unemployment, particularly among the young, wide spread undeclared work and the lack of a sufficient number of new and quality jobs. Volume of undeclared work in Montenegro is significant, amounting to one third of total employment. The key purpose of this policy paper is to provide insight into the scope of the undeclared economy in Montenegro, to describe the policy measures implemented in order to tackle undeclared economy and their effectiveness. This involved both desk-based research and interviews with institutions involved in tackling the …


Evaluating Competing Theories Of Informal Sector Entrepreneurship: A Study Of The Determinants Of Cross-Country Variations In Enterprises Starting-Up Unregistered, Colin C. Williams May 2018

Evaluating Competing Theories Of Informal Sector Entrepreneurship: A Study Of The Determinants Of Cross-Country Variations In Enterprises Starting-Up Unregistered, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

To advance understanding of the reasons for informal sector entrepreneurship, this article evaluates the determinants of
cross-country variations in the extent to which enterprises are unregistered when they start operating. Reporting the
World Bank Enterprise Survey data on 67,515 enterprises across 142 countries, the finding is that one in five (19.9%) of
the formal enterprises surveyed started-up unregistered, although this varies from all enterprises surveyed in some
countries (e.g. Pakistan) to 1% of surveyed enterprises in Slovakia. To explain these cross-country variations, four
competing theories are evaluated which variously assert that nonregistration is determined by either: economic
under-development and poorer …


Beyond The Formal Economy: Evaluating The Level Of Employment In Informal Sector Enterprises In Global Perspective, Colin C. Williams Dec 2012

Beyond The Formal Economy: Evaluating The Level Of Employment In Informal Sector Enterprises In Global Perspective, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the varying level of employment in informal sector enterprises
across the globe and to undertake an exploratory analysis of the wider economic and social conditions
associated with greater levels of informalization. Examining International Labor Organization surveys
conducted in 43 countries, the finding is that the main job of just under one in three (31.5 percent) nonagricultural
workers is in an informal sector enterprise. Conducting an exploratory analysis of the
correlation between countries with higher levels of employment in informal sector enterprises and
economic under-development (‘modernization’ thesis), higher taxes, corruption and state interference …


Evaluating The Prevalence And Nature Of Self-Employment In The Informal Economy: Evidence From A 27-Nation European Survey, Colin C. Williams, Jan Windebank, Sara Nadin Jan 2012

Evaluating The Prevalence And Nature Of Self-Employment In The Informal Economy: Evidence From A 27-Nation European Survey, Colin C. Williams, Jan Windebank, Sara Nadin

Colin C Williams

Despite the emergent recognition that many in the informal economy work on a self-employed basis, few have evaluated the extent and character of such endeavour. To start to fill this gap, a 2007 Eurobarometer survey composed of 26,659 face-to-face interviews in 27 European countries is reported. This reveals that 1 in 28 of the surveyed population participated in self-employment in the informal economy over the previous year, albeit with some significant socio-economic and spatial variations in the commonality and character of participation, and their reasons for doing so. The paper concludes by reviewing the implications for future research and policy. 


Evaluating The Variations In Undeclared Work In The Eu28, Colin C. Williams Dec 2011

Evaluating The Variations In Undeclared Work In The Eu28, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Drawing upon the results of 26,659 face-to-face interviews in the 27 member states of the
European Union (EU-27), the aim of this paper is to evaluate its varying magnitude and
whether such work is mostly wage-based (of an envelope wage or undeclared variety) or
own-account work (of a market-oriented or solidarity-oriented variety). The finding is
that in ‘welfare capitalist’ work and welfare regimes, which are more equal (measured by
the gini coefficient) pursue more extensive labour market interventions, have higher
levels of social protection and greater state redistribution, undeclared economies are
smaller and are composed mostly of solidarity-oriented own-account work. …


Blurring The Formal/Informal Economy Divide: Beyond A Dual Economies Approach, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin Dec 2011

Blurring The Formal/Informal Economy Divide: Beyond A Dual Economies Approach, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin

Colin C Williams

The need to integrate work beyond employment into discussions of labor practices is widely recognized. This has been so far largely achieved by adopting a dual economies perspective, which is criticized for depicting the formal and informal sectors as separate hostile worlds. To resolve this, an alternative “total social organization of labor” approach is here proposed that maintains the terms formal and informal as useful broad descriptors of different work relations, but recognizes a spectrum from purely formal to purely informal labor practices cross-cut by another spectrum from wholly monetized to wholly non-monetized labor practices. Reporting evidence from 861 face-to-face …


Jde 2012 Ghana Motives.Pdf, Colin C. Williams Dec 2011

Jde 2012 Ghana Motives.Pdf, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

In recent years, there has been growing recognition in the entrepreneurship literature that many
entrepreneurs operate in the informal economy and that not all these informal entrepreneurs are doing
so out of economic necessity and because of a lack of choice. Instead, it has been asserted that some of
these informal entrepreneurs choose to exit the formal economy and trade on an off-the-books basis
more as a matter of choice. However, until now most research displaying this has been conducted in
advanced western and post-socialist economies. Little has been written on whether this is also the case
in third (majority) …


Re-Thinking Informal Entrepreneurship: Commercial Or Social Entrepreneurs?, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin Dec 2011

Re-Thinking Informal Entrepreneurship: Commercial Or Social Entrepreneurs?, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin

Colin C Williams

This paper evaluates critically the assumption that entrepreneurs
who start-up their business ventures operating wholly or partially
off-the-books are engaged in commercial entrepreneurship. Reporting evidence
from a 2005–2006 survey involving face-to-face interviews with
298 informal entrepreneurs in Ukraine, the finding is that they are not all
commercially-driven. Instead, these informal entrepreneurs range from purely
rational economic actors who pursue for-profit logics through to purely social
entrepreneurs who pursue solely social logics, with the majority somewhere
in the middle of this spectrum combining both for-profit and social rationales.
The result is a call for a more nuanced understanding of the heterogeneous …


Evaluating The Persistence Of Selfprovisioning In Central And Eastern Europe: Some Evidence From Post-Soviet Ukraine, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin Dec 2011

Evaluating The Persistence Of Selfprovisioning In Central And Eastern Europe: Some Evidence From Post-Soviet Ukraine, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin

Colin C Williams

Recently, it has become increasingly recognized that the reach of the market
economy is shallower than previously assumed and that other livelihood
practices persist, such as self-provisioning. However, neither the prevalence of
nor the rationales underpinning engagement in these non-market work
practices have been widely evaluated. To start to bridge this gap, this article
evaluates the extent of self-provisioning in post-Soviet Ukraine and the reasons
for engaging in such subsistence production. Until now, participants in selfprovisioning
have been portrayed either as rational economic actors, dupes,
seekers of self-identity, or simply doing so out of necessity or choice. Analyzing
face-to-face interviews …