Statement of Purpose

As you can see in the picture to the left, my trip to Peru helped me discover the importance of the informal economy. Though we were hassled to buy all kinds of things from street vendors and home-based workers, it made my experience abroad that much more interesting. The informal economy is how thousands of people in Peru make their living. This interested me when I visited, and it only inspired me to learn more about it when I returned to the United States. The informal economy is an economic phenomenon that is occurring not just in Peru, but all over the world. My concentration is on Peru because it is a hugely diverse country by way of people, climate, and landscape, and it has one of the most intense forms of the informal sector.