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A Model to Estimate Informal Economy at Regional Level: Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

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  • Lucian-Liviu ALBU

Abstract

Many problems emerge since it is widely believed that high tax rates and ineffective tax collection by government are the main causes contributing to the rise of the informal economy. Already the economists have established a relationship between tax rates and tax evasion or size of the informal economy. The higher is the level of taxation, the greater incentive is to participate in informal economic activities and escape taxes. At the macroeconomic level, there is a number of so-called indirect methods used to estimate the size and dynamics of informal economy, reported in literature as “Monetary Approach”, “Implicit Labour Supply Method”, “National Accountancy”, “Energy Consumption Method”, etc. Unfortunately, many times there are huge differences among the estimated shares of informal or underground economy obtained by various methods. For instance, in case of Romania the figures are between about 20% of GDP, obtained on the base of the energy consumption method and more than 45% computed by using the monetary approach. Also, the figures reported by the National Institute for Statistics (NIS), based on national accounts methodology, increased (mainly due to changes in methodology) from about 5% in 1992, to 18% in 1997 and to 20-22% after 2000. Adding to these figures about 7% of GDP, representing the estimated level for self-consumption in case of a rural household, legal non-registered but informal, resulted that last years the informal economy is responsible of 27-29% of national economy. In this article, coming from certain general accepted finding of the theory in matter of modelling underground economy, we concentrate on evaluating analytically the limit-values of certain important parameters involved in models used to estimate the size of underground economy and to explain the mechanisms of its dynamics. Then we shall simulate some exercises on available data. The second goal of the paper is to report some conclusions of our investigation based on data supp
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  • Lucian-Liviu ALBU, 2010. "A Model to Estimate Informal Economy at Regional Level: Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Regional and Urban Modeling 284100002, EcoMod.
    • Handle: RePEc:ekd:002841:284100002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Daniel Daianu & Lucian Albu, 1997. "Institutions, Strains and the Underground Economy," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 98, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    2. Friedrich Schneider & Christopher Bajada, 2003. "The Size and Development of the Shadow Economies in the Asia-Pacific," Economics working papers 2003-01, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
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    4. Albu, Lucian Liviu, 2007. "Underground Economy And Fiscal Policies Modeling," Working Papers of Institute for Economic Forecasting 071202, Institute for Economic Forecasting.
    5. Albu, Lucian-Liviu & Nicolae, Mariana, 2003. "Use of households survey data to estimate the size of the informal economy in Romania," MPRA Paper 14286, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Albu, Lucian Liviu & Kim, Byung Yeon, 2002. "Households' Activities In Informal Economy: Size And Behavioural Aspects (Ii)," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(3), pages 18-28, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Albu, Lucian Liviu, 2008. "A Model To Estimate Spatial Distribution Of Informal Economy," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 5(4), pages 111-124, December.
    2. Leibfritz, Willi, 2011. "Undeclared economic activity in central and eastern Europe -- how taxes contribute and how countries respond to the problem," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5923, The World Bank.
    3. Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu (Alexandru) & Ion Dobre, 2013. "The Impact of Unemployment Rate on the Size of Romanian Shadow Economy," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(5), pages 578-607, September.
    4. Albu, Lucian-Liviu & Ghizdeanu, Ion & Iorgulescu, Raluca, 2011. "Analysing drivers of and barriers to the sustainable development: hidden economy and hidden migration," MPRA Paper 32810, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Iancu, Aurel, 2007. "The Question of Economic Convergence - first part -," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 4(3), pages 5-18, September.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

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