The Informal Economy in Monsoon Asia and Melanesia, 2013

The informal economy consists primarily of household enterprises (often called ‘micro’ or ‘survival’ enterprises). These enable the poor to ‘get by’ when the ‘modern’ economy is slow in creating enough ‘formal’ jobs. Cash-crop farming, trading and other services, and petty manufactures, are common activities and represent the forgotten grassroots element in the private sectors of those countries, and ‘pro-poor’ development strategies must take them into account. This paper was prepared by Dr. John Conroy a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University's Crawford School of Public Policy.