The "informal economy" circumvents the costs of, and is excluded from the benefits and rights incorporated in, the laws and administrative rules covering property relationships, commercial licensing, labor contracts, torts, financial credit, and social security systems. A summary measure of the informal economy is the income generated by economic agents that operate informally.De Soto, Hernando, The Other Path: The Invisible Revolution in the Third World. Harper and Row, New York, 1989
