Tackling undeclared work in advanced economies

The aim of this article is to advance understanding on how to tackle undeclared work in advanced economies by synthesising the available empirical evidence on the character of such work and then exploring the implications of these findings for public policy. Conventionally, undeclared work has been depicted as concentrated amongst the marginalised and an exploitative organised form of employment that is a hindrance to development. In this article, each tenet in this portrait of the undeclared sphere is evaluated critically. This reveals that empirical studies have increasingly found undeclared work to be: concentrated in affluent populations; conducted on an autonomous or self-employed basis as well as on an organised basis; undertaken under social relations more akin to unpaid mutual aid as well as under employment-like relations; and composed of positive as well as negative consequences so far as its contributions to economic and social development are concerned. Given this re-reading of the nature of undeclared work, the article then evaluates the consequences for public policy. The outcome is a call for the currently dominant deterrence approach towards undeclared work to be supplemented with an enabling approach that seeks to facilitate its transfer into the legitimate realm. How this might be achieved in the light of the multifarious character of undeclared work is then outlined.