To evaluate critically the policy options available for tackling the undeclared economy, this paper commences by evaluating the implications of four hypothetical policy choices, namely doing nothing, de-regulating the declared economy, eradicating the undeclared economy, or moving undeclared...

The aim of this article is to evaluate competing theories that variously explain the greater prevalence of envelope wages in some countries either as: a legacy of underdevelopment (modernisation thesis); due to high taxes, state corruption and burdensome regulations and controls (neo-liberal...

The aim of this article is to evaluate the competing theories that variously explain the greater prevalence of undeclared employment in some countries either as: a legacy of under-development; a result of the voluntary exit from declared employment due to the high taxes, state corruption and...

Attempts to nurture community self-help in deprived neighbourhoods presently tend to pursue the ‘third sector' route of developing community-based groups. Reporting data from recent UK government surveys of community involvement, however, this article uncovers how such a third sector approach...

PurposeFor many decades, European national governments sought to stamp out undeclared work using a repressive approach. In the changing economic context of declining employment participation rates, however, the European Commission has called for a new approach to transform undeclared work into...

Since the turn of the millennium, there has been widespread recognition that the informal economy is a sizeable and growing feature in the global economy. To explain this, neo-liberals have contended that the informal economy is a direct result of over-regulation, high taxes and state...

The aim of this paper is to conduct an exploratory analysis of factors that might explain the cross-national variations in the level tax morality across the European Union. In order to do this, three competing explanations for the cross-national variations in tax morality will be evaluated which...

Progressive direct taxation is necessary to complement social protection, in order to reduce income inequality as well as poverty. A new metric of personal income tax incidence progressivity (the "Plato Index") is presented, using WIDER databases for income inequality (WIID) and tax revenues...

In 2009 the EU adopted a new migration policy instrument - the Blue Cards (BC) - for attracting highly skilled workers to the EU. The present paper examines the potential impacts, which BC may cause on the less developed sending countries (LDC). According to the adopted framework of innovative...