Building upon household surveys, the KIIbIH database provides comparable indicators and harmonised data on informal employment, well-being of informal workers and their dependents. It currently covers 42 countries across North and sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.

A deeper look into the vulnerabilities of workers in the informal economy

Unlike other publicly available statistics, the KIIbIH portrays informality both at the individual and household levels. It takes into account not only the employment status of workers, but also the socio-demographic and economic status of their households.

 

Supporting the expansion of social protection in low and middle-income countries

The KIIbIH allows policymakers in low and middle-income countries to better monitor workers’ vulnerabilities in the informal economy, assess how such vulnerabilities may be passed on to their dependents --or be mitigated by other household members--, and ultimately better identify social protection interventions that fit their needs.

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Main indicators

Household composition of informal workers: Gender, location and informality status of household head Share of dependents Type of dependents Absolute and relative poverty at national and international levels

Existing coverage of lifecycle risks for informal workers and their dependents: Health insurance coverage/subsidized health care Health expenditures as a share of total expenditure Pension beneficiary prevalence among informal workers

Proxy measures of capacity to contribute towards social protection: Capacity to pay based on food Composition and magnitude of household spending Magnitude of individual and household income

Analysis

The following studies used the KIIbIH database (more reports forthcoming):

• OECD (2020), COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean: Regional socio-economic implications and policy priorities, OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19), OECD Publishing, Paris
• OECD  (2020), Informality and employment protection during and beyond COVID-19: good practices and the imperative of universal safety nets, Background note, OECD-LAC Virtual Social Inclusion Ministerial summit
• OECD (2020), Impacto social del COVID-19 en Ecuador: desafíos y respuestas, Making Development Happen, Volume 4
• OECD/ILO (2019), Tackling Vulnerability in the Informal Economy, Development Centre Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris
• Kolev, A. and J. La (forthcoming), Financing the extension of social insurance to informal economy workers: the role of remittances.
• Aleksynska, M. and Kolev, A. (forthcoming), Education-occupation mismatch in the context of informality and development

 

Are you a researcher using the KIIbIH data? Help us to identify journal articles, working papers, conference papers, dissertations, theses and other published works! Send the link to [email protected] and we’ll review it for inclusion on this page.


About

The KIIbIH database is a result of a two year process, which began in 2019, when the OECD and the International Labour Organization (ILO) jointly produced the report Tackling Vulnerability in the Informal Economy, in the framework of the EU Social Protection Systems Programme (EU-SPS). The report examined the well-being of informal workers and their household dependents in 27 countries across the world. 

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