In this paper, first, the MIMIC estimation method is described and criticized and due to a double counting problem a correction is suggested. Second, the measurement methods used for National Accounts Statistics - the discrepancy method and two new micro survey methods - are described and a...

This paper presents various methods used for estimating the size of the shadow economy. Each method is evaluated and its strengths and weaknesses are discussed, as well as results each method yields. The purpose of the paper is threefold: Firstly, to demonstrate that there is no single...

Undeclared work is socially accepted and widely practiced in Bulgaria, Croatia, and the FYR of Macedonia. More than 1 in 5 adults in these countries acknowledge that they have bought goods and services on the undeclared economy in the prior year. More than 1 in 12 report that they have...

The aim of this paper is to map the spatial variations in the size of the shadow economy within Brussels. Reporting data provided by the National Bank of Belgium on the deposit of high denomination banknotes across bank branches in the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, the...

The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of the extent and nature of undeclared work, and how it is being tackled, in the EU candidate country of Montenegro. The objectives of the report are to analyse the prevalence and character of undeclared work; to examine how the fight...

The aim of this report is to provide a systematic overview of the extent and nature of undeclared work, and how it is being tackled, in the EU acceding country of Croatia . Croatia has been classified by the World Bank as a ‘high income’ country, having a GNI per capita of USD 13,760 in...

This paper evaluates critically the popular structuralist representation that those operating in the informal sector are marginalized populations working as dependent employees out of economic necessity and in the absence of alternative means of livelihood. Reporting an empirical study of 1,518...

Over the past decade or so, there has been widespread recognition that a large and growing proportion of the global workforce is employed in informal sector enterprises. To explain this, neo-liberals contend that enterprises operate in the informal sector due to high taxes, public sector...

How many entrepreneurs start-up their business ventures conducting some or all of their trade in the informal economy? The aim of this paper is to answer this key question that has been seldom addressed using data from 600 face-to-face structured interviews conducted in Ukraine in late 2005 and...