Informality, Frictions and Monetary Policy

IMF Working Papers, 2010

This paper reviews the literature on the informal economy, focusing first on empirical findings and then on existing approaches to modelling informality within both partial and general equilibrium environments. We concentrate on labour and credit markets, since these tend to be most affected by informality. The phenomenon is particularly important in emerging and other developing economies, given their high degrees of informal labour and financial services and the implications these have for the effectiveness of macroeconomic policy. We emphasize the need for dynamic general equilibrium (DGE) and ultimately dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models for a full understanding of the costs, benefits and policy implications of informality. The survey shows that the literature on informality is quite patchy, and that there are several unexplored areas left for research.

2016

We analyze optimality of pro-cyclical monetary policy in the presence of informal sector and firm level constraint. Our findings suggest that in case of export demand shock pro-cyclical monetary policy suits only when shock is severe and domestic firms have high leverage ratio. However, the conventional monetary policy helps cushioning the loss in output when the size of informal sector is significantly large. Furthermore, fixing exchange rate is better policy option if objective is to keep domestic employment or consumption from falling (when negative shock hits the economy). We cannot find any disproportionate impact of monetary policy on informal sector. This may be due to static nature of the model and it might be possible that dynamics of responses of the two sectors to shocks differ significantly. JEL Classification: F0, F4, O17, O23, E52

Journal of Economic Studies, 2015

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the implications of borrowing constraints characterizing the informal sector for macroeconomic volatility. Design/methodology/approach To this end, the author develops a simple dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model wherein registered activity not only is the basis to determine tax liabilities, but also serves as collateral for securing debts. Such a framework allows for computational experiments to analyze the effect of informality on aggregate fluctuations. Findings The experiments show that the credit-constrained informal sector does exert a significant influence on the cyclical volatility of consumption and investment. Originality/value There are not many studies addressing the implications of informal economic activities for macroeconomic fluctuations. This paper contributes to the literature by developing a theoretical model showing that credit constraints characterizing these activities might play a non-negligible role in explaining the cyclical volatility of some important aggregates.

Economic Insights - Trends and Challenges, 2023

This paper presents a theoretical model that draws from the neoclassical school of thought to examine the impact of a dominant informal sector on monetary policy transmission in developing economies. The model accounts for the interactions between the formal and informal sectors and explores the channels through which monetary policy affects the economy. The findings reveal that a significant informal sector can weaken the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission, as informal sector participants may not respond to policy changes in the same way as formal sector participants. Additionally, the informal sector may use alternative channels for financing and transactions, bypassing the formal banking system and limiting the transmission of monetary policy.

Research in World Economy, 2021

In this paper, we investigate the transmission mechanism of monetary and fiscal policy shocks on inflation and output in the presence of an informal economy in Nigeria. To achieve this, a New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model is modified to include informality in the labour and product market. The model is estimated using the Bayesian technique and the findings shows that in the case of a monetary policy shock, formal output tends to decline, while there is an expansion in informal output, at least in the short-run. The results also reveal that a fiscal policy shock brings about an initial decline in informal output. Hence, it is imperative for policymakers to strive to formalise the informal sector in order to ensure the effectiveness of monetary policy.

Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 2015

This paper proposes a unified theoretical framework where formal and informal firms coexist and face the same type of product and labor market imperfections: they have monopoly power in the goods market, they are subject to matching frictions in the labor market, and wages are determined by bargaining between large firms and their workers, through either individual or collective bargaining. Our model matches the main stylized facts on informality for developing countries and appears to be a good candidate for policy analysis. In this framework, we study the impact on informality, wages and unemployment of policies that may be used to reduce informality. We consider changes in product market regulation (PMR) and in two types of fiscal policies, labor taxes and formality enforcement. We find that lessening PMR decreases informality and unemployment simultaneously, indicating that there is not necessarily a tradeoff between informality and unemployment. The tradeoff appears when fiscal policies are used, though. Moreover, the impacts of PMR on unemployment and on wages are larger under collective than individual bargaining. With respect to wage inequality, lessening PMR reduces it, while lower taxes tend to increase the formal sector wage premium.

2013

How do key macroeconomic variables of a small open economy with segmented labour markets behave in response to domestic and external shocks? In this paper we attempt to address this question by modeling the coexistence of a formal labour market with higher wage rates and search frictions, and an informal labour market with the opposite attributes in the standard multi-sector small open economy New Keynesian DSGE model. The model is calibrated for a typical Sub-Saharan African economy and the behaviour of key macroeconomic variables in response to domestic and external shocks is analysed. The results show that almost all the impulse response functions of our model are consistent with what theory predicts and what other empirical works show about the responses of low income countries to the shocks we consider. However, our results do not seem to corroborate the widely held wisdom that the existence of an informal sector plays a stabilizing role in the event of shocks.

International Journal of Business and Development Studies, 2019

This paper is concerned with the saddle-path stability of monetary growth rules in a two-country two-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. Alongside standard features of emerging economies, such as a combination of producer and local currency pricing for exports, fiscal dominance and oil exports, this model also incorporates informal labour and production sectors and examines how these features matter in the context of monetary policy in emerging economies. We estimate the model on Iran and US data for home and foreign block respectively using Bayesian estimation techniques. Under a benchmark instruments of monetary policy, we show that a Taylor-type money growth rule rather than interest rate, even up to a four period ahead forward-looking has complete stability and determinacy properties in the economy which is also hold regardless of the level of asset market participation, therefore the inverted Taylor principles does not apply in our economy. Our findings confirm the important propagation channels which are active in the emerging economies and taking into account these features is essential for any policy-related study, such as the stabilizer effect of terms of trade between formal and informal sector, buffer behaviour of informal sector which is dampened in the model of higher informal frictions, disturbance effects of credit constrained household on the business cycle fluctuations and finally, monetary policy shock which is less effective in an environment of high share of informal sector, low informal frictions, high share of limited asset market participations and a trade autarky economy.

Review of Economic Dynamics, 2015

This paper documents how informal employment in Mexico is countercyclical, lags the cycle and is negatively correlated to formal employment. This contributes to explaining why total employment in Mexico displays low cyclicality and variability over the business cycle when compared to Canada, a developed economy with a much smaller share of informal employment. To account for these empirical findings, a business cycle model is built of a small, open economy that incorporates formal and informal labor markets, and the model is calibrated to Mexico. The model performs well in terms of matching conditional and unconditional moments in the data. It also sheds light on the channels through which informal economic activity may affect business cycles. Introducing informal employment into a standard model amplifies the effects of productivity shocks. This is linked to productivity shocks being imperfectly propagated from the formal to the informal sector. It also shows how imperfect measurement of informal economic activity in national accounts can translate into stronger variability in aggregate economic activity.

2012

In this paper we analyse the effects of informal labour markets on the dynamics of inflation and on t he transmission of aggregate demand and s upply shocks. In doing so, we incorporate the informal sector in a m odified New Keynesian model with labour market frictions as in the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model. Our main results show that the informal economy generates a "buffer" effect that diminishes the pressure of demand shocks on inflation. This finding is consistent with the empirical literature on the effects of informal labour markets in business cycle fluctuations. This result implies that, in economies with large informal labour markets, changes in interest rates are more effective in stimulating real output and there is less impact on inflation. Furthermore, the model produces cyclical flows from informal to formal employment, consistent with the data.