Evaluating the Prevalence and Distribution of Unregistered Employment in Kosovo: Lessons from a 2017 Survey

Journal of Tourism Research

2020

109

The coronavirus pandemic has led to revenue loss for tourism enterprises and workers due to restrictions on movement. In response, governments have made available temporary financial support, but not to those tourist enterprises and workers in the undeclared economy. Reporting a 2019 Eurobarometer survey, this paper reveals that one in 165 European citizens engage in undeclared work in tourism and the groups involved. To bring these enterprises and workers onto the radar of the state, a voluntary disclosure initiative is advocated offering access to the temporary financial support for undeclared enterprises and workers disclosing their previous undeclared work.

Section: Coronavirus the Tourism Industry And Undeclared Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on Europe's tourism industry: Addressing tourism enterprises and workers in the undeclared economy

Journal of Tourism Research

2020

109

“…The estimated level of informal employment by the Kosovo Labour Force Survey (LFS) varies from 26.3% in 2016 to 13.4% in 2019, which can be mainly attributed to data quality rather than any improvements in formalisation. A large scale and rigorous Labour Force and Time Use Survey (LFTUS) conducted in 2017 and commissioned by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in Kosovo reveals that 34.6% of waged employees do not have a formal contract (Gashi and Williams, 2019), which is similar to a Reinvest survey (2017).…”

Section: Data Variables and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 92%

Evaluating the wage differential between the formal and informal economy: a gender perspective

Gashi

2021

JES

Self Cite

PurposeDespite a widespread assertion that wages are lower in the informal than formal economy, there have been few empirical evaluations of whether this is the case and even fewer studies of the gender variations in wage rates in the formal and informal economies. Consequently, whether there are wage benefits to formal employment for men and women is unknown. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the wage differential between formal and informal employment for men and women.Design/methodology/approachTo evaluate the wage differential between the formal and informal economy for men and women, data are reported from a 2017 survey involving 8,533 household interviews conducted in Kosovo.FindingsUsing decomposition analysis and after controlling for other determinants of wage differentials, the finding is that the net hourly earnings of men in formal employment are 26% higher than men in informal employment and 14% higher for women in formal employment compared with women in informal employment.Practical implicationsGiven the size of the wage differential, the costs for employers will need to significantly increase in terms of the penalties and risks of detection if informal employment is to be prevented, along with more formal employment opportunities using active labour market policies for vulnerable groups, perhaps targeted at men (who constitute 82.8% of those in informal employment).Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to evaluate the differentials in wage rates in the formal and economy from a gender perspective.

“…To change this cost/benefit ratio to make declared work a rational choice, European governments focused upon raising the costs of participating in undeclared work. This was achieved by increasing the sanctions and probability of detection and doing this was widely accepted by European governments as the most important and effective way of transforming undeclared work into undeclared work (see Williams 2019). The result was that scholars and governments paid little attention to increasing the benefits of declared work to change the cost/benefit ratio.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Turning to undeclared workers, three types exist. Firstly, there are unregistered employees, where the employees are wholly undeclared and have no written contract of employment (Gashi and Williams 2019;Krasniki and Williams 2017). A 2013 EU-wide survey finds that one in 20 (5 per cent) in employment reported not having a written contract of employment.…”

Section: Coronavirus and Its Impacts On The Undeclared Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Coronavirus Pandemic and Europe’s Undeclared Economy: Impacts and a Policy Proposal

South East European Journal of Economics and Business

Kayaoğlu

2020

Self Cite

AbstractThe coronavirus pandemic has led to a loss of revenues for enterprises and workers due to workplace closures and restrictions on movement to ‘flatten the curve’. In response, governments have made available temporary financial support to enterprises and workers affected. This paper evaluates a group currently excluded from this support, namely enterprises and workers in the undeclared economy, and a possible government policy response. To identify those involved, a 2019 Eurobarometer survey of undeclared work in Europe is reported. This reveals that one in every 132 European citizens relies wholly on undeclared earnings and the sectors and population groups involved. Given their reduced revenues and inability to access the temporary financial support, a voluntary disclosure initiative is recommended which brings undeclared enterprises and workers into the declared economy and onto the radar of state authorities by offering access to this temporary financial support if they disclose their previous undeclared work.