Small business and the informal economy: Evidence from the UK

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research

Volumn 13, Issue 6, 2007, Pages 349-366

  Williams, Colin C ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Small enterprises; Surveys; United Kingdom

Indexed keywords

EID: 34748911205     PISSN: 13552554     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/13552550710829160     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. Bajada, C. (2002), Australia's Cash Economy: A Troubling Issue for Policymakers, Ashgate, Aldershot.
2. Barthe, M.A. (1985), "Chmage, travail au noir et entraide familial", Consommation, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 23-42.
3. Bender, D.E. (2004), Sweated Work, Weak Bodies: Anti-sweatshop Campaigns and Languages of Labor, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
4. Espenshade, J. (2004), Monitoring Sweatshops: Workers, Consumers and the Global Apparel Industry, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA.
5. European Commission (1998), On Undeclared Work, COM (1998) 219, Commission of the European Communities, Brussels.
6. European Commission (2005), Feasibility Study of a Direct Survey of Undeclared Work in Europe, European Commission, Brussels.
7. Fortin, B., Garneau, G., Lacroix, G., Lemieux, T. and Montmarquette, C. (1996), L'Economie Souterraine au Quebec: mythes et realités, Presses de l'Université Laval, Quebec.
8. Hapke, L. (2004), Sweatshop: The History of an American Idea, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
9. Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (2005), The Informal Economy: Developing a Methodology, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, London.
10. Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2001), Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA.
11. Howe, L. (1988), "Unemployment, doing the double and local labour markets in Belfast", in Cartin, C. and Wilson, T. (Eds), Ireland from Below: Social Change and Local Communities in Modern Ireland, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin.
12. Jones, T., Ram, M. and Edwards, P. (2004), "Illegal immigrants and the informal economy: worker and employer experiences in the Asian underground economy", International Journal of Economic Development, Vol. 6, pp. 92-106.
13. Jordan, B. and Travers, A. (1998), "The informal economy: a case study in unrestrained competition", Social Policy and Administration, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 292-306.
14. Kesteloot, C. and Meert, H. (1999), "Informal spaces: the geography of informal economic activities in Brussels", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 232-51.
15. Lemieux, T., Fortin, B. and Frechette, P. (1994), "The effect of taxes on labor supply in the underground economy", American Economic Review, Vol. 84 No. 1, pp. 231-54.
16. Leonard, M. (1994), Informal Economic Activity in Belfast, Avebury, Aldershot.
17. Leonard, M. (1998), Invisible Work, Invisible Workers: The Informal Economy in Europe and the US, Macmillan, London.
18. McCrohan, K., Smith, J.D. and Adams, T.K. (1991), "Consumer purchases in informal markets: estimates for the 1980s, prospects for the 1990s", Journal of Retailing, Vol. 67 No. 1, pp. 22-50.
19. MacDonald, R. (1994), "Fiddly jobs, undeclared working and the something for nothing society", Work, Employment and Society, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 507-30.
20. Mateman, S. and Renooy, P.H. (2001), Undeclared Labour in Europe: Towards an Integrated Approach of Combating Undeclared Labour, Regioplan, Amsterdam.
21. Office of National Statistics (2005), Data Sources on the Informal Economy and Entrepreneurship, Office of National Statistics, London.
22. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2002), Measuring the Non-Observed Economy, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.
23. Pahl, R.E. (1984), Divisions of Labour, Blackwell, Oxford.
24. Pedersen, S. (2003), The Shadow Economy in Germany, Great Britain and Scandinavia: A Measurement Based on Questionnaire Surveys, The Rockwool Foundation Research Unit, Copenhagen.
25. Pfau-Effinger, B. (2006), "Informal employment in the work-welfare arrangement of Germany", in Marcelli, E. and Williams, C.C. (Eds), Informal Work in Developed Nations, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI.
26. Portes, A. (1994), "The informal economy and its paradoxes", in Smelser, N.J. and Swedberg, R. (Eds), The Handbook of Economic Sociology, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
27. Ram, M., Edwards, P. and Jones, T. (2002a), Employers and Illegal Migrant Workers in the Clothing and Restaurant Sectors, DTI Central Unit Research, London.
28. Ram, M., Edwards, P., Gilman, M. and Arrowsmith, J. (2001), "The dynamics of informality: employment relations in small firms and the effects of regulatory change", Work, Employment and Society, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 845-61.
29. Ram, M., Gilman, M., Arrowsmith, J. and Edwards, P. (2003), "Once more into the sunset? Asian clothing firms after the National Minimum Wage", Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, Vol. 71 No. 3, pp. 238-61.
30. Ram, M., Jones, T., Abbas, T. and Sanghera, B. (2002b), "Ethnic minority enterprise in its urban context: South Asian restaurants in Birmingham", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 24-40.
31. Renooy, P., Ivarsson, S., van der Wusten-Gritsai, O. and Meijer, R. (2004), Undeclared Work in an Enlarged Union: An Analysis of Shadow Work - An In-Depth Study of Specific Items, European Commission, Brussels.
32. Ross, A. (2004), Low Pay, High Profile: The Global Push for Fair Labour, The New Press, London.
33. Schneider, F. and Enste, D.H. (2002), The Shadow Economy: An International Survey, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
34. Small Business Council (2004), Small Business in the Informal Economy: Making the Transition to the Formal Economy, Small Business Council, London.
35. Small Business Service (2005a), Government Response to the Small Business Council Report on the Informal Economy, Department of Trade and Industry, London.
36. Small Business Service (2005b), "Statistical press release URN05/92", Small Business Service, Sheffield.
37. Small Business Service (2005c), SME Statistics UK 2004, Small Business Service, Sheffield.
38. Small Business Service (2006), 2004/05 Annual Small Business Survey, Small Business Service, Sheffield.
39. Thomas, J.J. (1992), Informal Economic Activity, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead.
40. Thomas, J.J. (1999), "Quantifying the black economy: 'measurement with theory' yet again", Economic Journal, Vol. 109, pp. 381-9.
41. Warde, A. (1990), "Household work strategies and forms of labour: conceptual and empirical issues", Work, Employment and Society, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 495-515.
42. Williams, C.C. (2002), "Beyond the commodity economy: the persistence of informal economic activity in rural England", Geografiska Annaler B, Vol. 83 No. 4, pp. 221-33.
43. Williams, C.C. (2004a), Cash-in-Hand Work: The Underground Sector and the Hidden Economy of Favours, Palgrave-Macmillan, London.
44. Williams, C.C. (2004b), "Geographical variations in the nature of undeclared work", Geografiska Annaler B, Vol. 86 No. 3, pp. 187-200.
45. Williams, C.C. (2005), "The undeclared sector, self-employment and public policy", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 244-57.
46. Williams, C.C. (2006), The Hidden Enterprise Culture: Entrepreneurship and the Shadow Economy, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
47. Williams, C.C. and Thomas, R. (1996), "Paid informal work in the Leeds hospitality industry: regulated or unregulated work?", in Haughton, G. and Williams, C.C. (Eds), Corporate City? Partnership, Participation and Partition in Urban Development in Leeds, Avebury, Aldershot.
48. Williams, C.C. and Windebank, J. (1994), "Spatial variations in the informal sector: a review of evidence from the European Union", Regional Studies, Vol. 28, pp. 819-26.
49. Williams, C.C. and Windebank, J. (1995), "Black market work in the European Community: peripheral work for peripheral localities?", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 22-39.
50. Williams, C.C. and Windebank, J. (1998), Informal Employment in the Advanced Economies: Implications for Work and Welfare, Routledge, London.
51. Williams, C.C. and Windebank, J. (2001), "Reconceptualising paid informal exchange: some lessons from English cities", Environment and Planning A, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 121-40.
52. Renooy, P. (1990), The Informal Economy: Meaning, Measurement and Social Significance, Netherlands Geographical Studies Association, Amsterdam.