## 1. Data and Terminology ## Source details **Canonical URL:** [1. Data and Terminology](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/cr/2026/english/1bhsea2026002-source-pdf.pdf) ## Other formats - [Markdown version](/-/media/files/publications/cr/2026/english/1bhsea2026002-source-pdf.pdf.md) - [Structured JSON version](/-/media/files/publications/cr/2026/english/1bhsea2026002-source-pdf.pdf.json) --- ### A. Background and labor market context - More than 50 percent of employment in The Bahamas is directly or indirectly linked to tourism. - Self-employment accounts for nearly one-fifth of private-sector employment (16 percent of total employment; 22 percent of private-sector employment). - Around 60 percent of workers are dependent private employees. - Public employment accounts for nearly 20 percent of the workforce. - Industry distribution of employment: 75 percent in services, 12 percent in wholesale and retail trade, 8 percent in construction, and 6 percent in manufacturing and primary industries. - Within services: hotels and restaurants employ nearly 17 percent of workers; financial services account for about 12 percent. - Labor productivity in The Bahamas has generally underperformed regional peers over the past two decades and recovered slowly after the pandemic. - Human capital constraints: 76 percent of firms in The Bahamas perceive the qualification of employees as a main barrier to innovation (Innovation, Firm Performance and Gender Survey, 2020). - By 2024, more than half of workers in hotels and restaurants and nearly 70 percent of workers in wholesale and retail were not trained for the area; in construction the share was close to 56 percent. ### B. Key labor market indicators and vulnerabilities - Education of employed population (by 2023): around 54 percent had completed secondary education; 38 percent had tertiary education. - Employed women are relatively more educated than men: 42 percent vs. 31 percent with tertiary education. - Youth unemployment (age 15–24): average 23.2 percent between 2015–2023; overall unemployment rate 10.4 percent. - Part-time work in 2019: nearly 16 percent of private workers had a part-time job (defined as employed individuals that worked less than 35 hours per week). - Part-time work by industry in 2019: agriculture 30 percent, community and social services 15 percent, wholesale and retail 11 percent. - Part-time work by gender in 2019 among private workers: women 12 percent; men 9 percent (difference statistically significant). ### C. Non-standard work and productivity - Firms relying heavily on non-standard work tend to underinvest in employee training, innovation, and productivity-enhancing technologies (literature cited). - Firms using higher proportions of flexible labor experience lower productivity growth (Kleinknecht et al. (2006) and other references). ### D. Financial inclusion and informality - Credit denials reported by Central Bank lending surveys linked to insufficient income, inability to verify income, underemployment conditions, and insufficient time on a job (Appendix I). - Cross-country evidence: household access to financial services tends to be lower in countries with higher informality (Ohnsorge and Yu (2022)). ### E. Key findings highlighted in this document - Self-employment is widespread in services and construction and is associated with higher exposure to vulnerability and informality. - Informal work arrangements affect many dependent private workers: about one-third of dependent private employees work under verbal agreements only (2019). - Decomposition exercise: the negative earnings gap of self-employed relative to private dependent employees is not fully explained by observable characteristics, suggesting roles for differential returns to skills and other structural barriers. ### F. Data sources and terminology (Box 1) - Primary data: Bahamas National Statistical Institute Labor Force Surveys (LFS) microdata for May 2019 and May 2023 (confidential waves facilitated by BNSI). - 2019 LFS: richer set of questions on working conditions and formality of employment relations (e.g., business license, written or verbal contracts). - 2023 LFS: more limited scope (does not allow identification of formal status) but has a significantly higher response rate for annual earnings; chosen as preferred dataset for empirical analysis on labor income gaps. Wages and hours of work are not available in the 2023 survey. - Unless otherwise stated, analysis focuses on each person’s main job reported in the surveys. - Definitions (following the International Labor Organization): - Non-Standard Work: temporary employment; part-time and on-call work; temporary agency work and other multiparty employment relationships; disguised employment and dependent self-employment. - Self-Employment: employers, own-account workers, contributing family workers and members of producers’ cooperatives. - Own-Account Workers: self-employment jobs without continuous engagement of employees. - Contributing Family Workers: own-account workers in a market-oriented establishment operated by a related person living in the same household. - Vulnerable Employment: comprises own-account and contributing family workers. - Informal Employment: persons in main or secondary jobs who are own-account workers, employers and members of producers’ cooperatives employed in their own informal sector enterprises; own-account workers producing goods exclusively for own final use by household; contributing family workers irrespective of enterprise formality; employees holding informal jobs (not subject to national labor legislation, income taxation, social protection, or entitlement to employment benefits). ### G. Self-employment and informal work arrangements (empirical patterns) - Concentration and composition: - About 70 percent of self-employed workers do not have employees (own-account workers). - Among non-public employees, more than 28 percent of male workers are self-employed compared to nearly 16 percent of female workers. - Sectoral concentration of self-employed workers: 71 percent of self-employed are in three industries — community and personal services (26 percent), wholesale and retail (23 percent), and construction (22 percent). - Within construction, more than 4 out of 10 workers were self-employed in 2023. - By occupation, most self-employed conduct craft and related occupations, and work in service and shop market sales. - Informality exposure: - 35 percent of the self-employed work in a non-registered business (2019). - Only 2 percent of private employees work in a business without any form of registration. - Nearly 80 percent of jobs in non-registered businesses are accounted for by self-employed workers. - More than half of own-account workers lack social security registration. - Gender and self-employment: - Share of self-employed by sex (2019 vs 2023): patterns show higher prevalence among men in certain categories and industries (figures shown in source). - Share of self-employed within industry (2019 vs 2023) shows higher prevalence in agriculture, construction, community/social/personal services, wholesale & retail, and hotels & restaurants. ### H. Empirical approach and document structure - Uses new microdata to analyze vulnerable and informal employment, with emphasis on self-employment and its earnings implications. - Section organization: - Section B: overview of The Bahamas’ labor market. - Section C: examines self-employment trends and sources of labor market informality. - Section D: provides empirical estimates of labor income gaps (including Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of annual labor income). - Section E: concludes. - Appendices include: I. Job Instability, Informality and Access to Credit; II. Supplementary Tables; References. --- ### 14. Other forms of informal work ### Informal arrangements among dependent private employees - Many dependent private employees report working at a registered business, but almost one-third do not have a written contract and only have a verbal agreement. - Industries where self-employment is more common are also more likely to hire dependent employees under verbal agreements. - Sectoral composition of dependent private employees who work under a verbal agreement: - Community and personal service sector: 26 percent - Wholesale and retail: 21 percent - Hotels and restaurants: 19 percent - Among private employees with a written agreement, 12 percent report that they are not recipients or entitled to employment insurance benefits. ### Self-employment exposure by age - Among the self-employed: - 45 percent of workers aged 25-29 years work in a non-registered business. - 37 percent of workers aged 30-49 years work in a non-registered business. - Among private dependent employees: - 23 percent of younger workers work under a verbal agreement. - 30 percent of workers aged 30-49 years work under a verbal agreement. ### Working time arrangements and underemployment - Private dependent employees across all sectors are more likely to work under a regular full-time schedule of 35–40 hours per week. - Self-employed workers display a more uneven working time distribution: - A standard full-time schedule is more common in the financing and insurance services sector for the self-employed. - In many other industries, self-employed workers exhibit many jobs exceeding 40 hours per week as well as many below 35 hours. - Time-related underemployment among self-employed: - 39 percent of self-employed who work less than 35 hours report doing so involuntarily, citing the inability to find additional work. ### Cross-country perspective on vulnerable and informal employment (Box 2) - Definition: According to the ILO, vulnerable employment comprises own-account workers and contributing family workers—assessed as most vulnerable to fall into poverty. - Vulnerable employment in The Bahamas: - Comprises around 15 percent of total employment (WDI, 2023). - Is almost entirely explained by own-account workers. - Informal employment in The Bahamas: - Latest available ILO data (2019) shows informal employment around 18 percent. - This is lower than regional peers (41 percent) but elevated compared to other high-income countries. - Correlation: Vulnerable employment and informality are highly correlated, reflecting high exposure to informality among own-account jobs. ### Labor income gaps: methods and key estimates - Empirical approach: - Mincer earnings regression on a restricted sample of self-employed and private employees to estimate differences in log annual earnings controlling for observable characteristics. - Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to split earnings gap into explained and unexplained components. - Mincer regression result: - Self-employed earn on average 19 percent less per year than private employees with the same observable characteristics (note: results are descriptive and not necessarily causal). - Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition (annual labor income, workers aged 15-64; SE clustered at the island level): - Table 1 coefficients: - Private Employee mean: 9.838 (SE 0.058; [95% conf. interval] 9.725, 9.952) - Self-Employed mean: 9.795 (SE 0.013; [95% conf. interval] 9.769, 9.821) - Difference: 0.04 (SE 0.065; p>z 0.501; [95% conf. interval] -0.083, 0.170) - Explained component: -0.12 (SE 0.057; z -2.08; P>z 0.037; [95% conf. interval] -0.228, -0.007) - Unexplained component: 0.16 (SE 0.037; z 4.31; P>z 0.000; [95% conf. interval] 0.088, 0.235) - N Private Employee: 1407 - N Self-Employed: 410 - Interpretation: - The decomposition suggests a statistically significant explained component of -12 percent and an unexplained component of 16 percent. - The negative explained component implies that observable characteristics of the self-employed would predict higher earnings if returns were the same as for private employees. - The positive unexplained component reveals a statistically significant penalty after accounting for worker characteristics—differences in returns to skills, job characteristics, and unobservable factors likely drive this penalty. ### Implications of income gaps - Self-employment may partly reflect limited market access and disadvantages (formal sector wage premiums, job security, social protection) rather than a high-return entrepreneurial option. - Structural barriers and the association between self-employment and informal work arrangements may prevent workers from translating skills into higher earnings. ### Policy recommendations and conclusions - Main challenges: - Self-employment and informal work arrangements—particularly in services sectors and construction—are key labor market challenges in The Bahamas. - Self-employed represent about a fifth of private employment. - About a third of dependent private employees work under verbal agreements only. - Suggested policy actions: - Ease supply-side constraints and barriers to business: - Simplify business registration requirements. - Enhance informational outreach to start-ups. - Communicate benefits of formal-sector participation to encourage regularization and creation of more formal jobs. - Invest in human capital: - Strengthen the education system. - Expand vocational training and apprenticeship programs tailored to current labor demand. - Improve job-matching services and enhance upskilling opportunities, including lifetime learning, to reduce vulnerable employment and labor informality. ### Appendix I — Job instability, informality and access to credit - Credit denials linked to insufficient income and unstable employment conditions: - H2-2024: nearly 26 and 19 percent of consumer and mortgage denials, respectively, were directly linked to insufficient income (debt service above threshold). - Unmet security of employment and informality conditions (inability to verify income, underemployment, insufficient time on job) accounted for 14 and 26 percent of consumer and mortgage denials, respectively. - Cross-country evidence: - Informality is associated with lower output and hinders firms’ and workers’ access to credit markets and financial systems. - Household access to financial services tends to be lower in countries with higher informality, reinforcing a cycle that can discourage formalization. *Source: 1bhsea2026002-source-pdf - 14. Other forms of informal work (LFS 2019, LFS 2023, BNSI, WDI, ILO, IMF staff calculations).* ### 1. Data and Terminology _______________________________________________________________ 4 ### 1. Data and Terminology ### A. Background and labor market context - More than 50 percent of employment in The Bahamas is directly or indirectly linked to tourism. - Self-employment accounts for nearly one-fifth of private-sector employment (16 percent of total employment; 22 percent of private-sector employment). - Around 60 percent of workers are dependent private employees. - Public employment accounts for nearly 20 percent of the workforce. - Industry distribution of employment: 75 percent in services, 12 percent in wholesale and retail trade, 8 percent in construction, and 6 percent in manufacturing and primary industries. - Within services: hotels and restaurants employ nearly 17 percent of workers; financial services account for about 12 percent. - Labor productivity in The Bahamas has generally underperformed regional peers over the past two decades and recovered slowly after the pandemic. - Human capital constraints: 76 percent of firms in The Bahamas perceive the qualification of employees as a main barrier to innovation (Innovation, Firm Performance and Gender Survey, 2020). - By 2024, more than half of workers in hotels and restaurants and nearly 70 percent of workers in wholesale and retail were not trained for the area; in construction the share was close to 56 percent. ### B. Key labor market indicators and vulnerabilities - Education of employed population (by 2023): around 54 percent had completed secondary education; 38 percent had tertiary education. - Employed women are relatively more educated than men: 42 percent vs. 31 percent with tertiary education. - Youth unemployment (age 15–24): average 23.2 percent between 2015–2023; overall unemployment rate 10.4 percent. - Part-time work in 2019: nearly 16 percent of private workers had a part-time job (defined as employed individuals that worked less than 35 hours per week). - Part-time work by industry in 2019: agriculture 30 percent, community and social services 15 percent, wholesale and retail 11 percent. - Part-time work by gender in 2019 among private workers: women 12 percent; men 9 percent (difference statistically significant). ### C. Non-standard work and productivity - International literature cited: firms relying heavily on non-standard work tend to underinvest in employee training, innovation, and productivity-enhancing technologies. - Firms using higher proportions of flexible labor experience lower productivity growth (Kleinknecht et al. (2006) and other references). ### D. Financial inclusion and informality - Credit denials reported by Central Bank lending surveys linked to insufficient income, inability to verify income, underemployment conditions, and insufficient time on a job (Appendix I). - Cross-country evidence: household access to financial services tends to be lower in countries with higher informality (Ohnsorge and Yu (2022)). ### E. Findings highlighted in this document - Self-employment is widespread in services and construction and is associated with higher exposure to vulnerability and informality. - Informal work arrangements also affect many dependent private workers: about one-third of dependent private employees work under verbal agreements only (2019). - A decomposition exercise shows the negative earnings gap of self-employed relative to private dependent employees is not fully explained by observable characteristics, suggesting roles for differential returns to skills and other structural barriers. ### F. Data sources and terminology (Box 1) - Primary data: Bahamas National Statistical Institute Labor Force Surveys (LFS) microdata for May 2019 and May 2023 (confidential waves facilitated by BNSI). - 2019 LFS: richer set of questions on working conditions and formality of employment relations (e.g., business license, written or verbal contracts). - 2023 LFS: more limited scope (does not allow identification of formal status) but has a significantly higher response rate for annual earnings; chosen as preferred dataset for empirical analysis on labor income gaps. Wages and hours of work are not available in the 2023 survey. - Unless otherwise stated, analysis focuses on each person’s main job reported in the surveys. - Definitions (following the International Labor Organization): - Non-Standard Work: temporary employment; part-time and on-call work; temporary agency work and other multiparty employment relationships; disguised employment and dependent self-employment. - Self-Employment: employers, own-account workers, contributing family workers and members of producers’ cooperatives. - Own-Account Workers: self-employment jobs without continuous engagement of employees. - Contributing Family Workers: own-account workers in a market-oriented establishment operated by a related person living in the same household. - Vulnerable Employment: comprises own-account and contributing family workers. - Informal Employment: persons in main or secondary jobs who are own-account workers, employers and members of producers’ cooperatives employed in their own informal sector enterprises; own-account workers producing goods exclusively for own final use by household; contributing family workers irrespective of enterprise formality; employees holding informal jobs (not subject to national labor legislation, income taxation, social protection, or entitlement to employment benefits). ### G. Self-employment and informal work arrangements (empirical patterns) - Concentration and composition: - About 70 percent of self-employed workers do not have employees (own-account workers). - Among non-public employees, more than 28 percent of male workers are self-employed compared to nearly 16 percent of female workers. - Sectoral concentration of self-employed workers: 71 percent of self-employed are in three industries — community and personal services (26 percent), wholesale and retail (23 percent), and construction (22 percent). - Within construction, more than 4 out of 10 workers were self-employed in 2023. - By occupation, most self-employed conduct craft and related occupations, and work in service and shop market sales. - Informality exposure: - 35 percent of the self-employed work in a non-registered business (2019). - Only 2 percent of private employees work in a business without any form of registration. - Nearly 80 percent of jobs in non-registered businesses are accounted for by self-employed workers. - More than half of own-account workers lack social security registration. - Gender and self-employment: - Share of self-employed by sex (2019 vs 2023): self-employed with employees and self-employed without employees share patterns by men and women (figures shown in source). - Share of self-employed within industry (2019 vs 2023) shows higher prevalence in agriculture, construction, community/social/personal services, wholesale & retail, and hotels & restaurants. ### H. Empirical approach and subsequent analysis (document structure) - The document uses new microdata to analyze vulnerable and informal employment, with emphasis on self-employment and its earnings implications. - Section organization: - Section B: overview of The Bahamas’ labor market. - Section C: examines self-employment trends and sources of labor market informality. - Section D: provides empirical estimates of labor income gaps (including Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of annual labor income). - Section E: concludes. - Appendices include: I. Job Instability, Informality and Access to Credit; II. Supplementary Tables; References. *Prepared by Maria Alexandra Castellanos under the supervision and guidance of Jorge Salas and assistance of Pablo Tillan (all WHD).* ### 14. Other forms of informal work ### 14. Other forms of informal work ### Informal arrangements among dependent private employees - Many dependent private employees report working at a registered business, but almost one-third do not have a written contract and only have a verbal agreement. - Industries where self-employment is more common are also more likely to hire dependent employees under verbal agreements. - Sectoral composition of dependent private employees who work under a verbal agreement: - Community and personal service sector: 26 percent - Wholesale and retail: 21 percent - Hotels and restaurants: 19 percent - Among private employees with a written agreement, 12 percent report that they are not recipients or entitled to employment insurance benefits. ### Self-employment exposure by age - Among the self-employed: - 45 percent of workers aged 25-29 years work in a non-registered business. - 37 percent of workers aged 30-49 years work in a non-registered business. - Among private dependent employees: - 23 percent of younger workers (age unspecified in this line but contrasted to 30-49) work under a verbal agreement. - 30 percent of workers aged 30-49 years work under a verbal agreement. ### Working time arrangements and underemployment - Private dependent employees across all sectors are more likely to work under a regular full-time schedule of 35–40 hours per week. - Self-employed workers display a more uneven working time distribution: - A standard full-time schedule is more common in the financing and insurance services sector for the self-employed. - In many other industries, self-employed workers exhibit many jobs exceeding 40 hours per week as well as many below 35 hours. - Time-related underemployment among self-employed: - 39 percent of self-employed who work less than 35 hours report doing so involuntarily, citing the inability to find additional work. ### Cross-country perspective on vulnerable and informal employment (Box 2) - Definition: According to the ILO, vulnerable employment comprises own-account workers and contributing family workers—assessed as most vulnerable to fall into poverty. - Vulnerable employment in The Bahamas: - Comprises around 15 percent of total employment (WDI, 2023). - Is almost entirely explained by own-account workers. - Informal employment in The Bahamas: - Latest available ILO data (2019) shows informal employment around 18 percent. - This is lower than regional peers (41 percent) but elevated compared to other high-income countries. - Correlation: Vulnerable employment and informality are highly correlated, reflecting high exposure to informality among own-account jobs. ### Labor income gaps: methods and key estimates - Empirical approach: - Mincer earnings regression on a restricted sample of self-employed and private employees to estimate differences in log annual earnings controlling for observable characteristics. - Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to split earnings gap into explained and unexplained components. - Mincer regression result: - Self-employed earn on average 19 percent less per year than private employees with the same observable characteristics (note: results are descriptive and not necessarily causal). - Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition (annual labor income, workers aged 15-64; SE clustered at the island level): - Table 1 coefficients: - Private Employee mean: 9.838 (SE 0.058; [95% conf. interval] 9.725, 9.952) - Self-Employed mean: 9.795 (SE 0.013; [95% conf. interval] 9.769, 9.821) - Difference: 0.04 (SE 0.065; p>z 0.501; [95% conf. interval] -0.083, 0.170) - Explained component: -0.12 (SE 0.057; z -2.08; P>z 0.037; [95% conf. interval] -0.228, -0.007) - Unexplained component: 0.16 (SE 0.037; z 4.31; P>z 0.000; [95% conf. interval] 0.088, 0.235) - N Private Employee: 1407 - N Self-Employed: 410 - Interpretation: - The decomposition suggests a statistically significant explained component of -12 percent and an unexplained component of 16 percent. - The negative explained component implies that observable characteristics of the self-employed would predict higher earnings if returns were the same as for private employees. - The positive unexplained component reveals a statistically significant penalty after accounting for worker characteristics—differences in returns to skills, job characteristics, and unobservable factors likely drive this penalty. ### Implications of income gaps - Self-employment may partly reflect limited market access and disadvantages (formal sector wage premiums, job security, social protection) rather than a high-return entrepreneurial option. - Structural barriers and the association between self-employment and informal work arrangements may prevent workers from translating skills into higher earnings. ### Policy recommendations and conclusions - Main challenges: - Self-employment and informal work arrangements—particularly in services sectors and construction—are key labor market challenges in The Bahamas. - Self-employed represent about a fifth of private employment. - About a third of dependent private employees work under verbal agreements only. - Suggested policy actions: - Ease supply-side constraints and barriers to business: - Simplify business registration requirements. - Enhance informational outreach to start-ups. - Communicate benefits of formal-sector participation to encourage regularization and creation of more formal jobs. - Invest in human capital: - Strengthen the education system. - Expand vocational training and apprenticeship programs tailored to current labor demand. - Improve job-matching services and enhance upskilling opportunities, including lifetime learning, to reduce vulnerable employment and labor informality. ### Appendix I — Job instability, informality and access to credit - Credit denials linked to insufficient income and unstable employment conditions: - H2-2024: nearly 26 and 19 percent of consumer and mortgage denials, respectively, were directly linked to insufficient income (debt service above threshold). - Unmet security of employment and informality conditions (inability to verify income, underemployment, insufficient time on job) accounted for 14 and 26 percent of consumer and mortgage denials, respectively. - Cross-country evidence: - Informality is associated with lower output and hinders firms’ and workers’ access to credit markets and financial systems. - Household access to financial services tends to be lower in countries with higher informality, reinforcing a cycle that can discourage formalization. *Source: 1bhsea2026002-source-pdf - 14. Other forms of informal work (LFS 2019, LFS 2023, BNSI, WDI, ILO, IMF staff calculations).* ### Appendix II. Supplementary Tables ### Appendix II. Supplementary Tables ### Appendix II. Table 1. The Bahamas: Mincer Regression: Estimated Coefficients — Notes - Sample restricted to workers aged 15-64. - Dependent variable is the natural logarithm of annual labor income from main job (own business in the case of self-employed). - Base category of tenure is more than 12 months. - Base category of education is primary level. - Clustered standard errors at the island level in parentheses. - *p<0.01, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01. - Data source: LFS 2023. - Note: Descriptive estimates need not be interpreted as causal (see Box 3). ### References - Cabrales, A., Dolado, J. J., & Mora, R. (2017). Dual employment protection and (lack of) on-the-job training: PIAAC evidence for Spain and other European countries. SERIEs, 8(4), 345-371. - Catão, L., & Rosales, M. R. (2009). Financial dependence, formal credit, and informal jobs: New evidence from Brazilian household data. IDB Working Paper Series; 118 - D'Erasmo, P. N. (2016). Access to credit and the size of the formal sector. Economía, 16(2), 143-199. - D'Erasmo, P. N., & Boedo, H. J. M. (2012). Financial structure, informality and development. Journal of Monetary Economics, 59(3), 286-302. - Fortin, N., Lemieux, T., & Firpo, S. (2011). Decomposition methods in economics. In Handbook of Labor Economics (Vol. 4, pp. 1-102). Elsevier. - Hirsch, B., & Mueller, S. (2012). The productivity effect of temporary agency work: Evidence from German panel data. The Economic Journal, 122(562), F216-F235. - International Labour Organization (2016). Non-standard employment around the world: Understanding challenges, shaping prospects. - Kleinknecht, A., Oostendorp, R. M., Pradhan, M. P., & Naastepad, C. W. M. (2006). Flexible labour, firm performance and the Dutch job creation miracle. International Review of Applied Economics, 20(2), 171-187. - Kouakou, D. C. (202 ). Can past informality impede registered firms’ access to credit? Journal of Comparative Economics. - La Porta, R., & Shleifer, A. (2014). Informality and development. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 28(3), 109-126. - Lopez-Martin, B. (2019). Informal sector misallocation. Macroeconomic Dynamics, 23(8), 3065-3098. - Lucidi, F., & Kleinknecht, A. (2010). Little innovation, many jobs: An econometric analysis of the Italian labour productivity crisis. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34(3), 525-546. - Malkova, A., & Peter, K. (2025). The journey to formality: How credit market access shapes informal workers' choices. Journal of Comparative Economics. - Nielen, S. (2016). Temporary agency work and firm competitiveness: Evidence from German manufacturing firms. In Trade Credit and Temporary Employment: How Companies Respond to Capital and Labor Market Frictions (pp. 41-67). Cham: Springer International Publishing. - Ohnsorge, F., & Yu, S. (2022). The long shadow of informality: Challenges and policies. World Bank Publications. - Ulyssea, G. (2020). Informality: Causes and consequences for development. Annual Review of Economics, 12(1), 525-546. *Appendix II. Supplementary Tables — 1bhsea2026002-source-pdf* --- _Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/cr/2026/english/1bhsea2026002-source-pdf.pdf_