| This dissertation makes the case for a new approach to the study of informal (underground) economies. The research addresses key questions concerning what an informal economy is, how participation in it is patterned, and how ideological as well as structural factors promote such activity.;The value of the research in this dissertation is in part practical. Most work by economists and other social scientists has reflected the assumption that the informal economy is primarily constituted by poor people. This bias is also evident in the fact that development planners have treated the poor as a discrete group, surviving informally by providing cheap goods and services to one another. However, despite efforts by development planners to transform poor, undeclared operators into declared "entrepreneurs," informal economies throughout the world are rapidly growing in scale.;In 15 months of fieldwork in Martinique, French West Indies, I studied two previously unexplored dimensions of research in the informal economy: (1) activity across classes, and (2) an ideology of economic cunning. Results of the research provide strong evidence that people from all socioeconomic classes participate significantly in undeclared economic activities. Moreover, the poor and moderate income operators tend to be sellers, offering their labor or services to buyers who are often not poor, but middle or even upper-income people. Though many middle-income people generate income through undeclared side activities, they are also likely to reduce expenses by buying the labor or goods of an undeclared worker.;Therefore, there are vertical linkages in the informal economy which constitute buyer/seller networks. These buyer/seller networks help explain the unexpected resilience of informal economic activity. In addition, commonly held local beliefs about economic craftiness demonstrate the active role that ideology may play in intensifying an individual's involvement in undeclared economic activity.;There are practical and theoretical benefits to understanding the hidden dynamics and ideological underpinnings of undeclared economies. This dissertation examines the implications of these findings and provides a new basis for more successful and responsive development planning. |
