Call for papers for a Session in The XVIth World Economic History Congress

Invisible world – towards the research of informal economy

The panel will be organized to discuss the problem of economic activities that are normally excluded from the official record system. We may describe this phenomena as informal economy that includes not only economic operations prohibited by law (like contraband or illegal fishing) but also any economic activities that are hidden from the official records and thus officially do not exist. The basic theses to be discussed during the panel are:
 Since informal economy is normally out of official record system, specific sources and methods are required to study this phenomena.
 Informal economy appears and develops in specific social, economic, environmental, cultural and institutional conditions. These conditions are to be studied if we want to understand the history of informal economy. For example frontier areas are obviously the best places for this kind of economy since normally they have specific population, bad governemtal control due to the high level of corruption, abundance of natural resources and plenty of hidden transportation roots.
 Social and economic modernization leads to the significant changes in the sphere of informal economy. The new forms of economic activities (like joint-stock companies and stock exchange) create respective forms of illegal and informal economy.
 Informal economy is ineradicable. It is necessary part of economic life and we have to find possibilities to study it if we want to understand the real economic situation in the certain time and place.
 From the point of view of the man in the street informal economy is quite useful part of everyday life as well as important element of survival strategy.
Discussion on the panel will open new directions in this branch of economic history.

Paper submit and contact - Dr. Alexey Kraykovsky, EU SPb, karl@eu.spb.ru; karlkarlito51@gmail.com