Policies for formalization of informal development: Recent experience from southeastern Europe

This paper presents the updated findings of a series of research studies conducted within the last seven years by the author on the problem of current informal development in five southeastern European countries with varying political and cultural backgrounds: Montenegro, Albania, Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Cyprus. The paper briefly reviews the main complexities and the variables associated with the issue in an effort to identify how these economies currently respond to informality in terms of regulations, priorities, and legislative and political approaches. It briefly investigates the causes, extent and impact of the problem and it analyses the adopted formalization policies with a purpose to identify good practices and remaining weaknesses.