Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gender, Opportunity, and Identity in New York's Informal Economy

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The informal economy, or the production of licit goods and services outside formal regulatory structures, encompasses a wide range of activities and products, including childcare, street vending, and home-based light industrial work. Most research on the informal economy focuses on demonstrating its size and importance, identifying the causes of its expansion, or understanding its relationship to the formal economy. Research has neglected issues relating to how participation in informal modes of labor affects individuals, and how these effects differ for men and women. This project rectifies these oversights by directly comparing the opportunities, experiences, and identities of men and women who are self-employed in New York City's informal economy. Using snowball sampling methods to recruit respondents with pin-up advertisements, newspaper classifieds, and referrals from other sample participants, the project gathers data from in-depth interviews about informal work histories, typical work days, and work, gender, and personal identities. In addition to describing how men and women go about their informal work on a day-to-day basis, get started in informal work, find clients, and earn income, the data show how informal work affects individual identity and how identity shapes the informal work process.