Positing the implementation of evidenced-based policies to manage the informal economy, our paper employs, in a novel way, the multiple-cause, multiple-indicator model and primary data, to identify the determinants of the Nigerian informal economy. Building on previous literature, relevant determinants of the informal economy were constructed from participants' responses to questions designed to solicit such information. We found the factors responsible for the origin and expansion of the Nigerian informal economy to include: unemployment, a need to be autonomous/self-employed, corruption of government officials/agencies, participants' desire to pay less tax, and participants' need to survive. The greatest influence, in terms of magnitude and impacts, comes from the 'participants' need to survive' factor, followed by corruption. Our policy recommendations follow these identified factors, and recognise the positive and important role played by the informal economy. Although country-specific, our findings/recommendations may be used to inform policy in other countries with similar economic structures as Nigeria.
Street vending has become an increasingly common feature of urban centres for several decades, with a relatively high proportion of developing countries’ populations depending on it for employment, income or survival. Taking a supply-side approach, studies have shown that the responses of urban planners to street vending have followed the modernism theory. In this paper, we take a demand-side (buyer-focused) approach to studying street vending, which has received little attention to date from the academic community. Employing data from Lagos state, Nigeria, we report four explanations underpinning the demand side of street vending: formal economy failures, social/redistributive explanations, financial gains and a multifeature explanation. These are, in turn, explained by the marital status, level of education and perception of individuals. Our findings highlight the need for urban planners to embrace pragmatic policies in addressing these demand-side drivers of street vending and use of urban space, rather than criminalising its actors.
Informal street vending is the most widespread activity in the global informal economy and a central part of citizens’ everyday lives, both sellers and patrons, in the urban centres of the Global South. Recently, however, authorities have started to ban street vending and even buying from vendors, as they impose policies that seek to control access to and use of urban spaces in pursuit of urban modernisation. Despite this, street vending continues. We seek understanding of this policy failure, from the perspective of the patrons of street vendors, a largely-neglected focus. Adopting a neoinstitutionalist framework, we utilise the concept of institutional incongruence to frame our empirical research. We apply multinomial analysis to an in-depth survey of 529 individuals in Lagos, Nigeria, complemented by 10 interviews. We find patrons are motivated by multiple economic, social and spatial factors. Our results, as well as codifying and confirming existing understandings of patrons’ motivations, introduce a distinct factor – necessity – into the literature. These results allow us to offer important policy insights. Gaps between citizens’ behaviour impacted by the formal institutions of neoliberal urban policies, and the longstanding informal institutions shaping custom, and community, provide new insights into Lagosians’ everyday lives as patrons of street vendors. Moreover, these urban policies are shown to drive people towards street vending, as sellers and patrons – the opposite of their intended outcome. For policies to be developed that can reduce institutional incongruence and improve, rather than worsen, Lagosians’ lives, our results offer an important starting point.
Motivated by calls to explore corporate outcomes of gender diversity‐related dependencies in a firm's upper echelons, we examine whether gender diversity in manager‐owner(s) teams shapes innovation. Using the context of emerging markets and a large surveydataset drawn from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS), we find robust evidence suggesting that gender‐diverse manager‐owner(s) teams are associated with higher odds of undertaking innovation. Specifically, women (men) owned firms managed by a male (female) top manager are associated with a higher likelihood of undertaking innovation relative to women (men) owned firms managed by women (men). Additionally, we find that female‐owned firms run by male (female) top managers are the most (least) innovative and male‐owned firms run by female (male) top managers are the second (third) innovative. Our findings indicate that heterophilic manager‐owner(s) teams have the potential to foster innovation in emerging markets. More importantly, our results suggest that initiatives promoting manager‐owner(s) team's gender diversity have the potential to overcome the social and structural barriers that impede innovation in emerging economies.
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