IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/20555_19.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Measuring innovation in the informal economy: current knowledge and open issues

In: Handbook of Innovation Indicators and Measurement

Author

Listed:
  • Erika Kraemer-Mbula

Abstract

The informal economy is a global and pervasive phenomenon. It provides a significant source of employment and livelihoods, especially for the most vulnerable and marginalised people in society. Despite the usual characterisation of the informal economy as a residual component of the economy, in many developing countries the informal economy is, in fact, the main economy. Informal economic activities are typically described as rudimentary, with little attention to their innovative potential. Research on innovation in the informal economy still represents a relatively new and unexplored frontier, and discussions around measuring it are still in their infancy. One of the difficulties with measuring innovation in the informal economy has to do with defining the boundaries of the informal economy itself. Others have to do with the practicalities of implementing different data collection methods in informal settings. This chapter reviews what we know about measuring innovation in the informal economy, highlighting key issues that remain open or unresolved in order to support the advance of studies in this field of research.

Suggested Citation

  • Erika Kraemer-Mbula, 2023. "Measuring innovation in the informal economy: current knowledge and open issues," Chapters, in: Handbook of Innovation Indicators and Measurement, chapter 19, pages 363-374, Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20555_19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781800883024.00030
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:20555_19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.