An easy and popular method for measuring the size of the underground economy is to use macro data such as money demand or electricity demand to infer what the legitimate economy needs, and then to attribute the remaining consumption to the underground economy. Such inferences rely on the...

This paper analyses a 2002 survey of the Czech and Slovak Republics, and more limited surveys of Hungary and Poland to conclude that tax evasion is lowest among those who believe that they are getting good quality government services for the taxes they pay. A 20% increase in perceived quality of...