The Size, Origins, and Character of Mongolia s Informal Sector during the Transition 1916. Mongolia s informal sector has expanded far more quickly during the transition than its formal sector, largely because of greater ease of entry into the informal sector.
Current policy discourages entry into the formal sector.
The explosion of informal entrepreneurial activity during Mongolia s transition to a market economy represents one of the most visible signs of change in this expansive but sparsely populated Asian country. To deepen our understanding of Mongolia s informal sector during the transition, Anderson merges anecdotal experience from qualitative interviews with hard data from a survey of 770 informals in Ulaanbaatar, from a national household survey, and from official employment statistics. Using varied sources, Anderson generates rudimentary estimates of the magnitude of, and trends in, informal activity in Mongolia, estimates that are surprisingly consistent with each other. The crisis of the early and mid-1990s, during which large pools of labor were released from formal employment. Rural to urban migration.