Flight to the Informal: A History of the Informalization of the Zimbabwean Economy 1965-2009

Abstract

This dissertation explores the entangled web of informal economic relations from UDI to 2009. State informality has a long history beginning with the imposition of sanctions under the Smith regime. This thesis examines the state-sanctioned informal economic activities from colonial to post-colonial times. The dissertation argues that to survive sanctions, the state embraced unconventional methods and became an enabler and participant in the informal economy, thereby aggravating the process of informalization. The dissertation investigates the impact of international and state laws and regulations on the economy, arguing that state policies directly impacted the informalization of the economy. Formal businesses informalized operations and teamed up with informal economy participants to escape overregulation leading to new forms of entrepreneurship. Overregulation led to the law being perceived as unjust and out of touch with economic realities hence the public disregarded economic laws and participated in parallel markets. The dissertation challenges the mainstream theorizations of informality that view the formal and informal as distinct economies and unrelated. The thesis contributes to the literature on informality by demonstrating that formal and informal categories are fluid and that formal and informal economies are codependent. Moreover, the dissertation shows that the informal economy is not marginal or a preserve for the poor but a vibrant, dynamic, and innovative economy that became the economy in Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2009. The dissertation engages broader literature on informality, law, sanctions, banking, and economics. The dissertation takes a dominantly thematic approach and uses a variety of sources ranging from archival, interviews, court records, parliamentary debates, and Wikileaks.