Urban Informal Sector in Pakistan: Some Selected Issues (Income DISTRIBUTION AND Poverty) (Report‪)‬

I. INTRODUCTION In recent years there has been much conceptual and empirical debate about the status of the informal sector and its role in the development of Third World countries. It was used by the International Labour Organization (ILO) as a policy tool for employment promotion, alleviation of poverty and elimination of income inequalities in developing countries [ILO (1972) and Weeks (1975)]. However, there is no dearth of studies which critically examine the informal sector [Bromley (1978); Tokman (1978); Gerry (1978) and Hosier (1987)]. Such studies have generated a fair amount of debate in the literature about the status of the informal sector [Richardson (1984); Moser (1984); House (1985) and Mehta (1985)]. (1)