The two most prominent deadweight losses in public finance are the triangle loss from taxation and the rectangle loss from rent-seeking. This paper suggests that a third type of deadweight loss can rival these two in size and deserves detailed exploration. In the presence of the underground...

Many public policy decisions require analytical and empirical knowledge concerning the size, growth, causes and consequences of the ‘underground economy”. This paper seeks to clarify the meaning of underground activity, updates various discrepancy and fiscal estimates of its size and growth,...

Recent research on the unobserved economy suggests that the phenomenon has important implications for both macroeconomic policy and public finance. Attention is focused on the public finance implications by developing a simple macro model from which it is possible to derive a Laffer curve. The...

This paper examines the available evidence on the size the UK’s underground (unobserved) economy and presents preliminary evidence on the size and growth of the unobserved economy for the period 1960-1980 based on Feige’s transaction approach. Reference: Journal of Economic Affairs, Vol.1...

Recent research on the unobserved economy suggests that the phenomenon has important implications for both macroeconomic policy and public finance. Attention is focused on the public finance implications by examining a macro-model model from which it is possible to derive a family of Laffer...

We examine the extent, causes and consequences of transition countries’ use of foreign currency as a co-circulating medium of exchange and store of value. Using new estimates of foreign cash in circulation, we obtain unique measures of currency substitution, asset substitution, and...

We examine the extent, causes and consequences of the use of foreign currency as a co-circulating medium of exchange and store of value in Latin America. Using new estimates of the amount of foreign currency in circulation in the form of US dollars, we obtain unique measures of currency...

A taxonomy of underground economies is elaborated based on the new institutional approach to economic development. Members of formal sectors confront different sets of transformation and transaction costs than do members of informal sectors and these differences are regarded as crucial to the...

Our survey of private manufacturing firms finds the size of hidden ‘unofficial’ activity to be much larger in Russia and Ukraine than in Poland, Slovakia and Romania. A comparison of cross-country averages shows that managers in Russia and Ukraine face higher effective tax rates, worse...

In this paper we propose a model of how institutional benefits, taxation and government regulations affect the productive activity of private enterprises. We consider an environment in which public officials enforcing tax and regulatory obligations are potentially corruptible, and markets for...