ECS3707 SEMESTER 1 & 2 & ALSO ECP 2021
ASSIGNMENT 03 (ESSAY)
Submission date 23 April 2021
Marks 50
Relevant sections
Prescribed textbook according to the study
guide
Learning units 6-11
Unique number 755398
, ESSAY QUESTION
Explain the impact of Covid-19 on the informal sector in South Africa by discussing the
advantages and disadvantages of the sector, interventions and strategies that the South African
government is using and can still use to recover the sector.
INTRODUCTION
The assignment is going to be structured as follows: to define informal sector in general
according to development economics understanding and also to look at the general frame work
of informal sector in South Africa, The assignment will proceed by looking at advantages and
disadvantages, and also to analyze strategies that the South African government is using and can
still use to recover the sector in context of covid-19.
DEFINATION OF INFORMAL SECTOR
The informal sector refers to those workers who are self-employed, or who work for those who
are self-employed. People who earn a living through self-employment in most cases are not on
payrolls, and thus are not taxed. Many informal workers do their businesses in unprotected and
unsecured places (Sumner et al, 2020).
A combination of factors has brought the informal sector into the mainstream discussion on
economic development. The term "informal sector" was able to incorporate activities that were
earlier ignored in theoretical models of development and in national economic accounts into the
discourse on development. As most activities in the informal sector are excluded from standard
measures of economic production (Schotte, 2019).
The growth and scale of informal employment in many developing countries has been
traditionally attributed to the displacement of workers into insecure forms of labor market
attachment as the only feasible alternative to unemployment (Fields, 1975; Mazumdar,
1976).Informal activity may be as much associated with entrepreneurial dynamism as with any
desire to avoid costly contract registration and social protection. However there is no a priori
reason for entrepreneurial activity to be unprotected.
ASSIGNMENT 03 (ESSAY)
Submission date 23 April 2021
Marks 50
Relevant sections
Prescribed textbook according to the study
guide
Learning units 6-11
Unique number 755398
, ESSAY QUESTION
Explain the impact of Covid-19 on the informal sector in South Africa by discussing the
advantages and disadvantages of the sector, interventions and strategies that the South African
government is using and can still use to recover the sector.
INTRODUCTION
The assignment is going to be structured as follows: to define informal sector in general
according to development economics understanding and also to look at the general frame work
of informal sector in South Africa, The assignment will proceed by looking at advantages and
disadvantages, and also to analyze strategies that the South African government is using and can
still use to recover the sector in context of covid-19.
DEFINATION OF INFORMAL SECTOR
The informal sector refers to those workers who are self-employed, or who work for those who
are self-employed. People who earn a living through self-employment in most cases are not on
payrolls, and thus are not taxed. Many informal workers do their businesses in unprotected and
unsecured places (Sumner et al, 2020).
A combination of factors has brought the informal sector into the mainstream discussion on
economic development. The term "informal sector" was able to incorporate activities that were
earlier ignored in theoretical models of development and in national economic accounts into the
discourse on development. As most activities in the informal sector are excluded from standard
measures of economic production (Schotte, 2019).
The growth and scale of informal employment in many developing countries has been
traditionally attributed to the displacement of workers into insecure forms of labor market
attachment as the only feasible alternative to unemployment (Fields, 1975; Mazumdar,
1976).Informal activity may be as much associated with entrepreneurial dynamism as with any
desire to avoid costly contract registration and social protection. However there is no a priori
reason for entrepreneurial activity to be unprotected.
