What Sustains Informality? A Study of the Interactions between Formal and Informal Sector Firms
研究了正规与非正规部门企业间的两种纵向联系，发现非正规部门为低收入消费者提供低价低质产品，并可能为正规部门生产中间品，从而解释了非正规部门的持续存在。
This paper considers two vertical links between informal and formal sector firms and studies their implications. First, we model a situation where final products produced by the formal and informal sector firms are differentiated in terms of quality and consumption demand for the informal sector firm is related to the distribution of income. Less well-off consumers generate demand for the low-priced, low quality good produced by the informal sector. Our paper studies the implications of this link for the size of the informal sector. Second, we analyse a situation where, instead of competing with the formal sector firm, the informal sector firm produces an intermediate good for the other firm.