Off the Books

I posted yesterday about Steven Leavitt's new paper on prostitution in Chicago. His co-author, Sudir Alladi Venkatesh is the author of: Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. It offers more insights into the off-the-books transactions supporting the economy in Chicago's ghettos. A review, by the lovely Kerry Howley of Reason magazine is here.

Like the Pinker-Venkatesh article, there are some choice excerpts. My favorite:

Take Oceana, a mother of six whose last six months of employment are a picture of elbow-greased, bootstrapping entrepreneurialism. “I picked up garbage for a guy who worked in the city and who was fucking some lady in the van and needed some time off one day,” she tells Venkatesh. “I bought some kids some beer. I always have someone who can’t leave work but who needs a bag [of pot or cocaine]. The lady at the library lets me put the books on the shelves. That minister likes me to walk on his back, or sometimes do a little more, but I’m not talking about that. Unless you paying.” Also on Oceana’s résumé: washing cars, painting houses, and minding a local store while a hooker gives the proprietor a blow job. She summarizes, “I do just about anything and everything, baby.”