ABSTRACT

This chapter on WIEGO’s research work complements the chapters in this volume by Joann Vanek and Françoise Carré on WIEGO’s statistical work. After a brief introduction to WIEGO’s approach to field research, the chapter introduces four key variables in the composition of informal employment that are often captured in official labour force statistics: branch of economic activity, status in employment, place of work, sex and other demographic indicators; and presents the well-known data-based WIEGO model of segmentation within the informal economy by status in employment and by sex, including the average earnings and poverty risk of each segment. Drawing on WIEGO’s field research, the chapter then illustrates how these variables intersect with the wider institutional environment to determine outcomes for different groups of informal workers, including home-based workers, street vendors/market traders and waste pickers. The central finding of WIEGO’s field research is that informal workers face systemic costs and risks determined largely by this intersection.