This paper compiles alternative estimates of underground economies in twenty five transition countries during the transition decade and finds a disturbing lack of convergence between them, calling into question the reliability of GDP figures (which in varying degrees now include non-transparent...

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

This paper examines the contribution of Hernando De Soto’s “The Other Path” in the context of the literature on “underground economies”. Various types of “underground economies” are described and are shown to arise from different causes and to have different consequences. The...

Abstract This paper compiles alternative estimates of underground economies in twenty five transition countries during the transition decade and finds a disturbing lack of convergence between them, calling into question the reliability of GDP figures (which in varying degrees now include...

This paper examines the role of “observer-subject feedback” namely the interaction effect between the social science observer and the subject being observed. When the observer is the government and the subject is a citizen, it is often the case that the subject may have incentives to distort...

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...