The population of most developed societies is ‘graying’. As life expectancy increases and thelarge baby-boom generation approaches retirement age, this has critical consequences formaintaining a high standard of living and the sustainability of pension systems. In the light ofthese labor-force...

This paper investigates the relation between social capital and crime. The analysis contributes to explaining why crime is so heterogeneous across space. By employing current and historical data for Dutch municipalities and by providing novel indicators to measure social capital, we find a link...

While there is an extensive literature on tax evasion a further aspect of cheating on the state, namely benefit fraud, has gained relatively modest attention in the economic literature. This paper seeks to fill this gap. We explore differences between benefit fraud and tax evasion due to...

This paper estimates the impact of registering for taxes on firm profits in Bolivia, the countrywith the highest levels of informality in Latin America. A new survey of micro and small firmsenables us to control for a rich set of measures of owner ability and business motivations thatcan affect...

We estimate the wage penalty associated with working in the South African informal sector.To this end we use a rich data set on non-self employed males that allows one to accuratelydistinguish workers employed in the informal sector from those employed in the formal sectorand link individuals...

This paper discusses a set of statistics for examining and comparing labor market dynamicsbased on the estimation of continuous time Markov transition processes. It then uses these toestablish stylized facts about dynamic patterns of movement using panel data fromArgentina, Brazil and Mexico...

We model decisions with respect to formality or informality for entrepreneurs in a newindustry for a developing economy. We show that informality allows a leader to explore,without significant sunk costs, the potential profitability of the industry; that is, informality maybe a stepping stone,...

Small and informal firms account for a large share of employment in developing countries.The rapid expansion of microfinance services is based on the belief that these firms haveproductive investment opportunities and can enjoy high returns to capital if given theopportunity...

Political corruption is a concern of many modern democracies. It weakens democraticinstitutions, restricts public services, and lowers productivity undermining economicdevelopment. Yet despite its importance, our understanding of what determines corruption islimited. This paper uses a novel...

This paper analyses how governance or institutional quality and tax morale affect the shadoweconomy, using an international country panel and also within country data. The literaturestrongly emphasizes the quantitative importance of these factors to understand the level andchanges of shadow...