Theory of Economic Growth

Lewis, W. Arthur

doi:10.4324/9780203709665

Cited by 242 publications

(215 citation statements)

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“…Firstly, a 'modernisation' thesis has argued that the informal economy becomes less prevalent with economic development and the modernisation of government which leads to a reduction in public sector corruption (Lewis 1959;Packard 2007). Applying this to the cross-national variations in unregistered employment, this perspective would thus view unregistered employment as more prevalent in less developed economies, measured in terms of GDP per capita, and societies in which there is a lack of modernisation of the state bureaucracy.…”

Section: Explaining Unregistered Employment: Theoretical Framing Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining individual- and country-level variations in unregistered employment using a multi-level model: evidence from 35 Eurasian countries

Krasniqi

Williams

2017

South East European Journal of Economics and Business

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The aim of this paper is to evaluate the individual- and country-level variations in unregistered employment. To analyse whether it is marginalised groups who are more likely to engage in unregistered employment and explain the country-level variations, a 2010 Life in Transition Survey (LiTS) involving 38,864 interviews in 35 Eurasian countries is reported. Multilevel logistic regression analysis reveals that younger age groups, the divorced, and those with fewer years in education, are more likely to be unregistered employed. On a country-level, meanwhile, the prevalence of unregistered employment is strongly associated with tax morale; the greater the asymmetry between informal and formal institutions, the greater is the prevalence of unregistered employment. It is also higher when GDP per capita as well as social distribution and state intervention (subsidies and transfers, social contribution expenditure, health expenditure) are lower. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications.

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Section: Explaining Unregistered Employment: Theoretical Framing Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining individual- and country-level variations in unregistered employment using a multi-level model: evidence from 35 Eurasian countries

Krasniqi

Williams

2017

South East European Journal of Economics and Business

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“…'Output may be growing, and yet the mass of the people may be becoming poorer' (Lewis, 1955). In the transition from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the policy debate has been shifting from growth to growth quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare spending and quality of growth in developing countries: A note on evidence from Hopefuls, Contenders and Best Performers

Asongu

Nwachukwu

2016

The Social Science Journal

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The transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has shifted the policy debate from growth to 'quality of growth' (QG). We explore a new dataset on QG by the IMF and classify 93 developing countries for the period 1990-2011 in terms of Hopefuls, Contenders and Best Performers. The aims are as follows: (i) to depict the contradiction between high-growth and poor social welfare and (ii) to assess the influence of education and health spending on the QG. We use quantile regressions to articulate least and best QG performers. Two key findings emerge. First, 31 of the 33 countries in the Hopefuls category are in SSA. Second, the effect of health is decreasingly positive from Hopefuls to Best Performers, while the impact of education is increasingly positive. As a main policy implication, it would benefit countries in SSA to invest more in health relative to education now, but decrease such health expenditure and increase education spending as the economies in the sub-region make the transition from Hopeful to Contenders and finally to Best Performers in terms of 'quality of growth'.

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“…During the 20th century, the predominant assumption was that there would be a natural and inevitable expansion of the formal economy and that informal employment was a leftover from a pre-modern mode of production and gradually waning (Boeke, 1942;Geertz, 1963;Lewis, 1959). From this modernisation perspective, therefore, the level of informal employment would naturally reduce as economies modernise and develop.…”

Section: Explaining the Prevalence Of Informal Employment: The Neo-limentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For much of the past century, the dominant view was that informal employment was a remnant from a pre-industrial mode of production and steadily disappearing with economic development and the advent of modern economies (Geertz, 1963;Lewis, 1959). During the past few decades, however, there has been growing recognition that informal employment is extensive and even expanding in many global regions (Dana, 2010;ILO, 2012;Schneider, 2013;Schneider and Williams, 2013;Williams, 2007;Round, 2007, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tackling informal employment in developing and transition economies: a critical evaluation of the neo-liberal approach

Williams

2015

IJBG

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This paper evaluates critically the argument of neo-liberals that informal employment is a result of high taxes, public sector corruption and too much state interference in the free market and that the consequent solution is to reduce taxes, public sector corruption and the regulatory burden via minimal state intervention. Comparing International Labour Organization data on the cross-national variations in the prevalence of informal employment with the variables levels of tax rates, corruption and state intervention across 41 developing and transition economies, little support is found for the neo-liberal approach. Instead, lower (not higher) levels of informal employment are found to be associated with higher levels of regulation and state intervention, resulting in a call for more, rather than less, regulation and state intervention to protect workers in developing and transition economies. The theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

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Theory of Economic Growth

Cited by 242 publications

References 0 publications

Explaining individual- and country-level variations in unregistered employment using a multi-level model: evidence from 35 Eurasian countries

Explaining individual- and country-level variations in unregistered employment using a multi-level model: evidence from 35 Eurasian countries

Welfare spending and quality of growth in developing countries: A note on evidence from Hopefuls, Contenders and Best Performers

Tackling informal employment in developing and transition economies: a critical evaluation of the neo-liberal approach

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