Informal sector and development: the case of Cambodia.

Summary This thesis focuses on the informal sector in a developing country, Cambodia. It begins with a historical and economic presentation of this country. After examining the concept of informality, it presents an overview of the various components of the productive structure and estimates the contribution of the informal sector to GDP. It considers the mechanisms of labor allocation and analyzes the resulting segmentation. It demonstrates that the productive structure has little influence on the labor market and thus highlights the impact of relationship networks. Finally, it studies the role attributed to the informal sector in a development process and the policies advocated by international organizations. It presents the characteristics of Cambodian informal activities and suggests some avenues for developing policies for them and their workers, given the Cambodian institutional and political context.