Informal Economy

Alejandro Portes is John Dewey Professor of Sociology and International Relations at the Johns Hopkins Unievrsity. His previous books include Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States; Labor, Class, and the International System; and Urban Latin America. Manuel Castells is professo of planning at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of fifteen books, including The Economic Crisis and American Society. Lauren A. Benton is a former member of the faculty in the department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. OverviewChapter 1. World Underneath: The Origins, Dynamics, and Effects of the Informal EconomyPart II. Urban Labor MarketsChapter 2. Employment Structure, Life Cycle, and Life Chances: Formal and Informal Sectors in GuadalajaraChapter 3. New York's Informal EconomyChapter 4. Informal Sector versus Informalized Labor Relations in UruguayChapter 5. The Articulation of Formal and Informal Sectors in the Economy of Bogotá, ColombiaChapter 6. Miami's Two Informal SectorsPart III. Black Money, Black MarketsChapter 7. Cocaine, Informality, and the Urban Economy in La Paz, BoliviaChapter 8. Informal Personal Incomes and Outlays of the Soviet Urban PopulationPart IV. Industrial Restructuring and the Informal SectorChapter 9. Subcontracting and Employment Dynamics in Mexico CityChapter 10. The Informal Economy and the Development of Flexible Specialization in Emilia-RomagnaChapter 11. Informalization in the Valencian Economy: A Model for UnderdevelopmentChapter 12. Industrial Subcontracting and the Informal Sector: The Politics of Restructuring in the Madrid Electronics IndustryPart V. The Informal Sector and the StateChapter 13. Informalization at the Core: Hispanic Women, Homework, and the Advanced Capitalist StateChapter 14. Industrial Development, Ethnic Cleavages, and Employment Patterns: Penang State, MalaysiaChapter 15. The "British Experiment": Structural Adjustment or Accelerated Decline?ConclusionList of ContributorsIndex

The Informal Economy makes it clear that the economic arrangements recorded in official statistics are not the only ones worth studying. -- Nancy Foner Science [An] intensely interesting and readable set of case studies... The 'moving boundaries' of definition make is possible to include an extraordinary diversity of materials from the cocaine economy of Bolivia to the vibrant small-firm economy of the Italiam "Red belt," from Malaysia to Mexico City to Miami and New York. There are interesting data on informal personal incomes and outlays of the Soviet population, and an essay on the 'informalization' of the British economy under Thatcherism. -- Lisa R. Peattie Studies in Comparative International Development