profile of the population (Cling et al. 2011; Hoang 2024) and the availability of incentives or benefits that encourage formalisation (Cling et al. 2011). In Thailand, the majority of informal workers have only attained primary-level education (Bangkok Post 2023). There, a key characteristic of the informal sector is its predominance in rural areas, where access to quality education and formal job opportunities is limited. These structural limitations influence individuals’ decisions to engage in informal work. In addition, unavoidable barriers, such as cost of formalisation, present significant challenges for relevant economic actors, forcing them to remain informal due to lack of better alternatives Due to the limited data availability across many economies, alternative indicators are often used to estimate informal employment. One commonly used proxy is self-employment data, as self-employed workers are more likely to operate outside formal contract arrangements, and developing APEC economies, Indonesia; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Thailand; and Viet Nam have consistently recorded high self-employment rates during the period 2000-2023, exceeding 50 percent of their total employment. Other developing economies, such as Brunei Darussalam; Hong Kong, China; Russia;2 and Singapore, recorded lower rates of self- 2 In Russia, the status of ‘self-employed’ is a special tax regime introduced to simplify business activity for individuals who work independently without hiring employees. Self-employed persons pay a reduced tax rate -