Rethinking Indonesia’s Informal Sector
利用全国代表性调查数据，检验关于发展中国家非正规部门成因的竞争理论，发现印度尼西亚大多数非正规企业规模极小、生产率低、受教育程度低，且注册简化项目未能降低非正规率。
This paper reviews competing theories about the causes of informality in developing countries and uses new data to determine which theory best explains the persistence and scale of Indonesia’s informal sector. Using nationally representative survey data on micro, small, and medium-sized firms, we find that most of Indonesia’s informal firms are very small, micro firms, with less than five employees. These firms pay low wages, are relatively unproductive when compared to large firms, are managed by individuals with low educational attainment, predominantly supply products to local markets, and have not recently attempted to expand their operations. From a small-scale, qualitative survey of firms, we find that many informal firms do not register their businesses either because they have no desire to expand or borrow from formal financial sources, or because they are avoiding taxes . Finally, we evaluate the impact of Indonesia’s one-stop-shops for business registration program, a large-scale program that attempted to reduce registration costs. We find both that the program had no effects on firms’ informality rates, and we also find that it did not reduce the probability that workers were informally employed. Taken together, the evidence suggests that a combination of the rational exit and the dual economy theories best explains why so many firms in Indonesia are informal.