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...

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...

The present paper uses a survey of 1062 Czechs and 524 Slovaks to ask why people evade taxes. We maintain that the Czech and Slovak Republics are “twins” separated at birth and that divergences between these countries since their separation in 1992 can explain divergences in their rates of...

We use a dataset of 1062 individuals from the Czech Republic to forecast the evolution of tax evasion in that country. We ask each respondent how intensely (never, sometimes, often) he evaded taxes in 1995, 1999, and 2000, to calculate probabilities the average individual will move between these...

This paper deals with the Tanzi method for the estimation of underground economy. The approach is discussed and modified. Refinements on the variables and on the econometric technique are proposed. The “adjusted” Tanzi method is then used to estimate the shadow economy in Italy along...

This paper examines the measurement, size and implications of the Underground Economy in the US.

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...

This paper examines the size and implications of the Underground Economy in the US.

This paper examines why some transitions are more successful than others by focusing attention on the role of productive, protective and predatory behaviors from the perspective of the new institutional economics. Many transition economies are characterized by a fundamental inconsistency between...

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...