Out of the Shadows : Explaining the Undeclared Economy in Baltic Countries

Until now, participation in undeclared work has been explained through either a structuralist lens as driven by ‘exclusion' from state benefits and the circuits of the modern economy or through a neo-liberal and/or post-structuralist lens as driven by the voluntary ‘exit' of workers out of formal institutions and into this alternative realm. Reporting the results of a 2007 survey of undeclared work in eight Baltic nations, this paper reveals how such either/or explanations need to be transcended and replaced with an appreciation of the heterogeneous nature of such work and the diverse motives underpinning participation in this sphere