FACULTÉ & RECHERCHE

Informal economy represents an expanding sector of economy activity worldwide, especially in Latin American counties. This includes Brazil, where high levels of informal entrepreneurships compose the country economy background. These informal entrepreneurs may act in clusters. One of these cases is the Brás' informal garment trade markets. The objective is to map the different kinds of entrepreneurs co-existing inside this specific informal cluster in Brazil, considering possible advantages and disadvantages they might have. It was identified four main types of entrepreneur sellers in the retail cluster: 1) formal sellers from sidewalk tents; 2) informal sellers with no tent set up; 3) formal retail stores; 4) informal sellers located inside warehouses. It was also proposed that risks related to governmental inspection and security issues could serve as antecedents of each entrepreneurship types incidence at Brás. This is an institutional mechanism that could be used by policy makers.