Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrates that the prevalence of multifarious forms of informal work across diverse global economic landscapes. It outlines how patients with a high acceptability of corruption are significantly more likely to offer informal payments for healthcare services. The book discusses opportunities to enrich the existing development scholarship, placing informal practices within the contours of critical development theory. It illustrates traders’ practices in conducting small-scale trade of two particular commodities—cattle and foodstuffs—among cross-border traders in response to informal tax payments set by a former armed group on the Shan State side. The book explores the linkages between informal economic activity at a bazaar in Pakistan and local levels of formal and informal governance. It shows that the relevance of informal marketplaces and their traders associations to formal governance structures.