Australia’s underground economy – redux?

Bajada (2006) recognises that his earlier books and papers used a faulty method for measuring the underground economy in Australia. He also reports finding a new “more serious problem” in the method. All of these failures can be avoided, it is claimed, by reduced use of currency modelling and more reliance on outside estimates. Despite delivering estimates up to two-thirds less than before, the revised method involves substantial double counting. Ironically, these problems are found only in Bajada’s particular method, not in currency modelling generally.