IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2022-49.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A new social contract inclusive of informal workers

Author

Listed:
  • Martha Chen
  • Sophie Plagerson
  • Laura Alfers

Abstract

This paper makes the case that current social contracts are often inadequate, irrelevant, or unjust for informal workers. It outlines three possible future scenarios: the bad old contract, an even worse contract, and a better new contract. Under the bad old contract, informal workers lacked legal recognition, were stigmatized and penalized, and were excluded as partners. The intensification of predatory capitalism, repressive state policies and the collusion of state and capital, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic recession, makes the possibility of a worse new deal all too real.

Suggested Citation

  • Martha Chen & Sophie Plagerson & Laura Alfers, 2022. "A new social contract inclusive of informal workers," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-49, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2022-49
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2022-49-new-social-contract-inclusive-informal-workers.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adelheid Biesecker & Uta von Winterfeld, 2018. "Notion of multiple crisis and feminist perspectives on social contract," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 279-293, May.
    2. Menevis UZBAY PIRILI & Mustafa PIRILI, 2015. "A New Social Contract: Rethinking the Role of the State Towards Post- 2015 Development Agenda," Ege Academic Review, Ege University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, vol. 15(2), pages 253-264.
    3. Dibyendu Maiti & Kunal Sen, 2010. "The Informal Sector in India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, April.
    4. World Bank, 2019. "World Development Report 2019 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2019]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 30435.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lone Riisgaard & Nina Torm & Godbertha Kinyondo & Winnie Mitullah & Anne Kamau & Aloyce Gervas & Raphael Indimuli, 2024. "Challenging the formality bias: The organization of informal work, working relations, and collective agency in Kenya and Tanzania," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(1), January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amanda J. Muhammad & Alina M. Waite & Dwuena C. Wyre, 2019. "Informal Sector Retail Start-Ups In A Caribbean Context," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(02), pages 1-15, June.
    2. repec:eur:ejesjr:364 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Katsu Masaki, 2022. "Exploring the ‘Partial Connections’ between Growth and Degrowth Debates: Bhutan’s Policy of Gross National Happiness," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 34(1), pages 86-103, January.
    4. Ofori, Isaac K. & Figari, Francesco, 2022. "Economic Globalisation and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Contingencies and Policy-Relevant Thresholds of Governance," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Forthcomi, pages 1-1.
    5. Dang, Hai-Anh H & Giang, Long T., 2020. "Turning Vietnam's COVID-19 Success into Economic Recovery: A Job-Focused Analysis of Individual Assessments on Their Finance and the Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 13315, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Jim Li & Max Pang & Jennifer Smith & Colleen Pawliuk & Ian Pike, 2020. "In Search of Concrete Outcomes—A Systematic Review on the Effectiveness of Educational Interventions on Reducing Acute Occupational Injuries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-23, September.
    7. Ryszard Kata & Justyna Chmiel, 2020. "Financialisation Level of Non-Financial Enterprises in European Union Countries: A Comparative Analysis," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 378-398.
    8. Alessandro Ferrari, 2022. "Inventories, Demand Shocks Propagation and Amplification in Supply Chains," Papers 2205.03862, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    9. Stewart, Robert & Chowdhury, Murshed & Arjoon, Vaalmikki, 2021. "Interdependencies between regulatory capital, credit extension and economic growth," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    10. Dimov, Dimo & Pistrui, Joseph, 2024. "Dynamics of entrepreneurial well-being: Insights from computational theory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    11. Camara Kwasi Obeng & Peter Yeltulme Mwinlaaru & Isaac Kwesi Ofori, 2022. "Global Value Chain Participation and Inclusive Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," Springer Books, in: Evelyn F. Wamboye & Bichaka Fayissa (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Africa’s Economic Sectors, pages 815-840, Springer.
    12. Anginer,Deniz & Demirguc-Kunt,Asli & Mare,Davide Salvatore, 2020. "Bank Capital and Risk in Europe and Central Asia Ten Years After the Crisis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9138, The World Bank.
    13. Charles Gottlieb & Jan GrobovsÌŒek & Markus Poschke & Fernando Saltiel, 2020. "Working from home: Implications for developing countries," Vox eBook Chapters, in: Simeon Djankov & Ugo Panizza (ed.), COVID-19 in Developing Economies, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 242-256, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    14. Timini, Jacopo & Viani, Francesca, 2022. "A highway across the Atlantic? Trade and welfare effects of the EU-Mercosur agreement," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 291-308.
    15. Anh Thu Quang Pham & Pundarik Mukhopadhaya, 2022. "Multidimensionl Poverty and The Role of Social Capital in Poverty Alleviation Among Ethnic Groups in Rural Vietnam: A Multilevel Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 281-317, January.
    16. Paul A. Schulte & Ivo Iavicoli & Luca Fontana & Stavroula Leka & Maureen F. Dollard & Acran Salmen-Navarro & Fernanda J. Salles & Kelly P. K. Olympio & Roberto Lucchini & Marilyn Fingerhut & Francesco, 2022. "Occupational Safety and Health Staging Framework for Decent Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-28, August.
    17. Alexei O. Verenikin & Anna Y. Verenikina & John T. Finley & Khanifa V. Tyrkba & Maria V. Melanina, 2023. "Human Capital for Sustainable Regional Development," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 54-69.
    18. Paul Corral & Roberta Gatti, 2020. "Accumulation interrupted: COVID-19 and human capital among the young," Vox eBook Chapters, in: Simeon Djankov & Ugo Panizza (ed.), COVID-19 in Developing Economies, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 286-302, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    19. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    20. Angrist,Noam & Djankov,Simeon & Goldberg,Pinelopi Koujianou & Patrinos,Harry Anthony, 2019. "Measuring Human Capital," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8742, The World Bank.
    21. Sidra Naeem & Rana Ejaz Ali Khan, 2021. "Fiscal Decentralization and Gender Equality in Developing Economies: Dynamics of Income Groups in Economies and Corruption," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 11(9), pages 745-761, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Informal work; Informal economy; Social contract; State; Capital;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2022-49. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    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.