Is Informal Employment a Safety Net in Times of Crisis? Evidence from Serbia
Is Informal Employment a Safety Net in Times of Crisis? Evidence from Serbia

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the analysis of movements and causes of the informal employment in Serbia from the period of 1990s until the present time. Based on the results of the survey, it is not possible to confirm the assumption that informal employment rises in the years of economic crises and falls during economic recovery. Since informal employment can have the same trend as formal employment i.e. to fall in the times of crisis, it cannot be the safety net for those who are formally unemployed. Economic growth, however, cannot secure the decrease in absolute nor relative level of informal employment. Inadequate economic policies and labour market institutions can countermand the positive impact of economic growth on the labour formalisation. Therefore, the creation of proper labour market policies and institutional environment should be the central goals for policymakers in both economic crisis as well as economic growth periods.

• Details
• Contents