Informal economy, informal state: the case of UzbekistanInternational Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

In the Soviet Union, the official command structure for economic production and distribution gave rise to, and depended upon, what has been described as a “shadow” economy. In the post-socialist context, the unregulated, often extra-legal activities of production and exchange, encompassing the survival strategies of the poor, the emergence of post-socialist “Mafias”, and much entrepreneurial activity, has been described using the concept of the “informal economy”.