Informal Employment in Urban China : Measurement and Implications
Because of China's socialist legacy, until recently little attention has been paid to the rise of informal employment. Under planning urban workers enjoyed guaranteed employment, housing, pensions, and health care. The prevalence of informal e...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/383331468220789675/Informal-employment-in-urban-China-measurement-and-implications http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27218 |
| Summary: | Because of China's socialist
legacy, until recently little attention has been paid to the
rise of informal employment. Under planning urban workers
enjoyed guaranteed employment, housing, pensions, and health
care. The prevalence of informal employment has important
implications for public policies, because informality is
often associated with poverty and social vulnerability, and
it affects tax collection, the enforcement of labor
regulations, and the provision of adequate social protection
to workers and their families. Informality thus can be
characterized by dualism, including both those who engage in
informal work of their own volition and those who do so
involuntarily because they are systematically excluded from
formal employment opportunities. The goal of this paper is
to provide for the first time an accurate measurement of
informal employment in China by analyzing data from recent
household surveys collected in six large Chinese cities in
2010. The surveys were designed by the authors with
questions included to enable measurement of informality
using accepted international standards set by the
International Labour Organization (ILO) as well as by
considering factors relevant in the Chinese context. The
authors provide a number of insights into the extent and
nature of informal employment and labor market development
in China. The large payroll charges for social insurance
programs create a disincentive for both employers and
employees to participate. |
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