Revisiting the Informal Sector

sector has drawn serious cognizance among economists in view of its role in developing economies. The earlier contention that the informal sector epitomises the ¿residual¿ sector or a sector of last resort has been belied by a plethora of evidences indicating its dynamic character and its instrumental role in ameliorating unemployment and in propelling the dev- oping economies towards growth and prosperity. This conceptual metamorphosis regarding the informal sector has stimulated revived interest in the phenomenon amongdevelopmenteconomists.Thereexistmanybooksthatdealwiththesector analyticallyorempirically. However, the theoretical analysis of the different aspects of the sector is equally important, especially for formulation of appropriate policy prescriptions. Comparativestaticresults,inmanycases,divergefromtheconventionalresults.We noticedthatalthoughvariousauthorshavepublishedtheoreticalpapersindifferent journals, there are very few books that try to understand the informal sector in a theoreticalframework.Thislacunainculcatedinusaninteresttowritethisbook.