To conclude, therefore, let me answer the questions posed at the beginning of the
paper. Here, it has been shown that undeclared work is predominantly composed of
self-employed activity and that the self-employed sometimes use undeclared work as a
starting point for their business ventures. Still not known, however, is whether it is
common to use undeclared work in the early stages of self-employment and when and
why engagement in undeclared sphere tails-off. What is now required, in consequence,
is further research to answer these questions. To do this, a survey of the self-employed
at various stages of development in order to investigate the degree to which, if at all,
their ventures operate in the undeclared sector, and if so, what they view as the barriers
preventing formalisation. Indeed, until these barriers to formalisation have been
identified, work cannot begin on developing targeted initiatives to facilitate the
transition of enterprises from the undeclared to the declared sphere.
What seems certain from the above, however, is that a conceptual shift in
understanding is required with regard to the nature of the undeclared sphere. Indeed,
unless it occurs, then governments may well find that with each step that they take to
deter undeclared work, they will be with one hand destroying precisely the
self-employment and entrepreneurial behaviour that they are so desperately seeking to
nurture with another hand.