Revised estimates of the Underground Economy: Implications of US Currency held abroad

The paper reexamines the strengths and weakness of all direct and indirect methods of estimating the amount of US currency held abroad and concludes that between 25% -45% of US currency is held abroad. This result stands in sharp contrast to the widely cited estimates presented by Porter and Judson (1996) who claim that between 55% -70% of US currency is held abroad. The new estimates of currency held abroad are used to derive a domestic currency series which is then employed in a conventional currency ratio model to estimate the size and growth of the unreported economy in the US between 1973 and 1994.