Measuring the informal sector through mixed surveys: Past experiences and challenges ahead

While in developing countries around 50% of total employment are informal sector jobs, and much more among the poorest, its statistical measurement is a major issue. Having long remained a black hole of national statistical systems, sound methodologies have been developed to measure the informal sector in its different dimensions (employment, production, and more broadly articulation with the rest of the economy) in a reliable manner. Taking stock on nearly four decades of experiences accumulated around the world, this article presents a system of original surveys, specially designed for this objective: the Informal Sector Mixed (households-businesses) Surveys (ISMSs). After exposing their theoretical principles, the paper addresses the main challenges of implementation in the field, detailing their advantages and limitations. In particular, we question the compatibility of ISMSs with the recommendations of the new Resolution concerning statistics on the informal economy, adopted in 2023 during the 21st International Conference of Labor Statisticians. We also identify avenues to address a certain number of challenges that still arise with this type of survey, both in the methodological field and on the institutional level. We illustrate our discussion with a set of selected empirical results drawn from surveys conducted in various contexts.