Rural–Urban Migration, the Informal Sector, Urban Unemployment, and Development Policies: A Theoretical Analysis

This paper develops a theoretical model like Gupta's to show the simultaneous existence of the urban informal sector and open unemployment in the urban sector in a Harris–Todaro type of model of rural–urbanmigration. A wage or a price subsidy policy to the rural sector, or a demand management policy like an export promotional scheme in the manufacturing sector, reduces the urban unemployment level, and provides a theoretical basis for the introduction of export promotional measures like the formation of duty-free Export Processing Zones (EPZs) to solve the urban unemployment problem. The policy conclusions of the present paper are different from those found in Gupta's 1993 model.