Does informal economy impede economic growth? Evidence from an emerging economy

The objective of this study is to re-examine the impact of the informal economy on economic growth in Pakistan. This study first computed the informal economy through currency demand equation and then the adopted auto-regressor distributed lags (ARDL) technique for data analysis. The result indicates that 56% informal economy of gross domestic product (GDP) exists in Pakistan. The Wald F-test shows that the overall model is statistically significant because the value of this test (13.4) is more than the upper and lower bounds values. Whereas Engle-Granger causality test describes that the growth rate of real GDP causes the Granger to GDP at 5%. This study tries to solve these issues and give a new policy implication for policymakers to control the informal economy and make sure that this sector will convert into a recorded or reported form.

Automated summary

The study confirmed a significant presence of informal economy in Pakistan, with 56% of GDP existing in this sector. The research proposed new policy implications to tackle the informal economy and ensure its conversion into formal sector.