The social impact of informal economies in Eastern Europe

Book abstract:

This book admits from the outset that what constitutes 'informal economies' is difficult to define. The contributors do, however, attempt to clarify and explain their development, largely through research on Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Russia. Part of the problem, as one writer points out, is that before 1989 in most of these areas, the notion of other, that is non-state or 'secondary' economies, were taboo subjects, and that only in Poland and Hungary did studies into these economies receive official sanction. Moreover, the concept of informal economies has frequently thrown into question what distinguishes 'normal' from 'abnormal' economies in the first place.

After some preliminary observations and endeavours to define patterns of participation in the informal economies of Eastern Europe in the nineties, the book consists of five parts, Each is devoted to a different country, except for part five, which is on methodology. Part one, on Bulgaria, contains work on both Bulgaria's historical background and current situation, as well as on the arrangement of day-by-day socialist village life and the idea of informal farm labour. Part two, on Romania, deals with the question of how Romanian households are riven between state, market, and informal economies, along with informal activities in rural regions, farming, family, and economic functions. In part four, on Hungary, there are discussions of Hungary's so called 'hidden economy' in the nineties and the informal labour market-place in Moscow Square, while part five, on Russia, examines the state of the country both broadly and in more specific terms of the way the informal economy operates in households, and how it has made way for the restructuring of families.