How Reliable are the Estimates of the Underground Economy?

Economists have proposed several different econometric techniques for measuring the underground economy but these estimates have varied widely and have cast doubts on their credibility and usefulness. This paper describes a dynamic bootstrap routine for constructing confidence intervals for these estimates. This approach avoids the need for subjective opinion on the relative merit of each technique and offers a way to assess the reliability of the various econometric methodologies that have been used.