The informal economy and its resilience in Latin America

Since the 1960s the informal economy has had a relevant role in the economic development processes in Latin America. In this context scholars developed the main theoretical approaches that have attempted to explain the causes of informality and its possible policy responses. The presentation will show the main definitions of the informal economy, its strong and weak points, the main explanations of the informal economy used in the Latin American countries, and the trends of informality in comparison with both the employment and GDP evolution. In the final part the attention will focus on some open questions and some reasons for which it is still important to deal with the informal economy and its controversies.