Doctoral Dissertation Research: International Constraints and Informal Trade Networks

非正规(或灰色)经济一词指的是不受政府监管、未计入国民生产总值或国民生产总值的企业、经济活动和工人。即便如此，众所周知，非正规经济是世界经济活动的重要组成部分：据国际劳工组织估计，在全球范围内，非正规经济雇用的劳动力占全球劳动力的一半以上。该奖项支持的研究采用了多维方法来解决非正式性在日益全球化的经济环境中如何发挥作用的问题。重点放在三个相互关联的动态之间的关系上：本土经济实践、国家监督和全球力量的影响。这项研究很重要，因为人们越来越多地感受到非正式经济活动超出了地方层面，并可能对国际经济监管政策和实践的结果产生重大的意想不到的影响。研究将由纽约州立大学宾厄姆顿分校人类学博士生Ehsan Lor Afshar进行，托马斯·M·威尔逊博士负责监督。这位研究人员将在一个被国际边界分割的地区进行研究，国际边界一直是主要的非正式跨境贸易网络的中心。研究这些网络如何与全球监管相互作用，如反洗钱和打击资助恐怖主义的国际框架以及区域经济制裁，将为此类方案和政策在地方一级有效、重新配置或转变的潜力提供一个具有启发性的案例研究。研究人员将通过人类学的混合方法收集数据：(1)参与者观察一个主要批发市场的日常生活，重点关注三种不同类型的商品(食品、布匹和电子产品)；(2)对商家样本的调查；(3)对商人协会领导人、其他非政府组织、政府官员和商家子样本的半结构化访谈；(4)对商人和社区领袖的焦点小组；以及(5)档案研究。这项研究将促进社会科学对全球金融监管和制裁如何与当地不受监管或半监管的经济做法相互作用的理解。通过澄清跨国政策对当地的影响，研究结果将有助于国家官员和全球组织。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The term informal (or grey) economy refers to businesses, economic activities, and workers that are not government regulated and are not captured in measures of national GDP or GNP. Even so, the informal economy is known to comprise a significant part of world economic activity: the International Labor Organization estimates that globally, it employs over half of the world's labor force. The research supported by this award takes a multidimensional approach to the question of how informality plays out in an increasingly globalized economic environment. The focus is on the nexus of three inter-related dynamics: vernacular economic practices, state surveillance, and the effects of global forces. The research is important because informal economic activities are increasingly felt beyond the local level and can produce significant unintended effects on the outcomes of international economic regulatory policies and practices.The research will be conducted by State University of New York, Binghamton, anthropology doctoral student, Ehsan Lor Afshar, with the oversight of Dr. Thomas M. Wilson. The researcher will engage in research in a region divided by the international borders that have been central to major informal cross-border trade networks. Examining how these networks interact with global regulation, such as the international framework for Anti Money Laundering and Counter Financing Terrorism and regional economic sanctions, will provide a revealing case study of the potentials for such programs and policies to be efficacious, reconfigured, or transformed at the local level. The researcher will collect data through a mix of anthropological methods: (1) participant observation in a major wholesale market's everyday life, with a focus on three divergent types of merchandise (foodstuffs, cloth goods, and electronics); (2) surveys of a merchant sample; (3) semi-structured interviews with merchant association leaders, other NGOs, government officials, and a sub-sample of merchants; (4) focus groups of merchants and community leaders; and (5) archival research. The research will advance social scientific understanding of how global financial regulations and sanctions interact with local unregulated or semi-regulated economic practices. Research findings will be helpful for state officials and global organizations by clarifying the picture of the effects of transnational policies on the ground.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.