Informal aspects of the economy

No economy is completely regulated and captured perfectly by statistical enquiries. Steps have to be taken, therefore, to attempt to cover unregulated activity and survey imperfections as special exercises. There are two approaches that, although they share a lot of common ground, are directed towards two rather different goals. The first is to ensure that all activities including those that may be described as “hidden” or “underground” are encompassed in measures of total activity. The second is to define what is meant by the subset of economic units that can be considered “informal” and to measure this.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development