IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2012-047.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inclusive Growth, Institutions, and the Underground Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. Adil Mohommad
  • Mr. Anoop Singh
  • Ms. Sonali Jain-Chandra

Abstract

Worldwide protests against the perceived lack of economic opportunity and failure of governance have refocused attention on the need for inclusive growth and strong institutions. In developing countries, large informal economies limit state capacity to deliver governance and strong institutions, which in turn discourages participation in and expansion of the formal economy. This paper analyzes the determinants of the underground economy, with particular emphasis on the role of institutions and the rule of law. We find that when businesses are faced with onerous regulation, inconsistent enforcement and corruption, they have an incentive to hide their activities in the underground economy. Empirical analysis suggests that institutions are a more important determinant of the size of the underground economy than tax rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Adil Mohommad & Mr. Anoop Singh & Ms. Sonali Jain-Chandra, 2012. "Inclusive Growth, Institutions, and the Underground Economy," IMF Working Papers 2012/047, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2012/047
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=25721
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Friedrich Schneider & Andreas Buehn & Claudio Montenegro, 2010. "New Estimates for the Shadow Economies all over the World," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 443-461.
    2. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Zoido-Lobaton, Pablo, 1999. "Aggregating governance indicators," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2195, The World Bank.
    3. Friedman, Eric & Johnson, Simon & Kaufmann, Daniel & Zoido-Lobaton, Pablo, 2000. "Dodging the grabbing hand: the determinants of unofficial activity in 69 countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 459-493, June.
    4. Schneider, Friedrich, 2004. "The Size of the Shadow Economies of 145 Countries all over the World: First Results over the Period 1999 to 2003," IZA Discussion Papers 1431, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Larissa Batrancea & Anca Nichita & Ioan Batrancea & Lucian Gaban, 2018. "The Strenght of the Relationship Between Shadow Economy and Corruption: Evidence from a Worldwide Country-Sample," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 1119-1143, August.
    2. Ofori, Isaac K. & Asongu, Simplice A., 2022. "Repackaging FDI for Inclusive Growth: Nullifying Effects and Policy Relevant Thresholds of Governance," MPRA Paper 111359, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Angelopulo, George, 2021. "A comparative measure of inclusive urbanisation in the cities of Africa," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    4. Loudi Njoya & Ibrahim Ngouhouo & Simplice A. Asongu & Friedrich Schneider, 2022. "The role of economic prosperity on informality in Africa: evidence of corruption thresholds from PSTR," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 22/012, African Governance and Development Institute..
    5. Soldatos, Gerasimos, 2014. "Indirect Tax Incidence under Inelastic Underground Economy Demand," MPRA Paper 64598, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Mr. Babacar Sarr & Mokhtar Benlamine & Zsuzsa Munkacsi, 2019. "The Macroeconomic Effects of Labor and Product Market Reforms in Morocco," IMF Working Papers 2019/222, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Aribah Aslam & Amjad Naveed & Ghulam Shabbir, 2021. "Is it an institution, digital or social inclusion that matters for inclusive growth? A panel data analysis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 333-355, February.
    8. Richter, Kaspar & Witkowski, Bartosz, 2014. "Does growth generate jobs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6759, The World Bank.
    9. Laurence Ball & Davide Furceri & Daniel Leigh & Prakash Loungani, 2019. "Does One Law Fit All? Cross-Country Evidence on Okun’s Law," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 841-874, November.
    10. Quintano, Claudio & Mazzocchi, Paolo, 2013. "The shadow economy beyond European public governance," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 650-670.
    11. Aristidis Bitzenis & Vasileios Vlachos & Friedrich Schneider, 2016. "An Exploration of the Greek Shadow Economy: Can Its Transfer into the Official Economy Provide Economic Relief Amid the Crisis?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 165-196, January.
    12. Daniel Němec & Zuzana Machová & Igor Kotlán & Eva Kotlánová & Christiana Kliková, 2022. "Corruption in Public Administration as a Brake on Transition to Industry 4.0," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    13. Corneliu Sorin BAICU & Cristian Valentin HAPENCIUC, 2016. "Model Of Choices, Institutions And Direct Democracy Quasi-Economic Factors Of The Influence Of Underground Economy," EcoForum, "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania, Faculty of Economics and Public Administration - Economy, Business Administration and Tourism Department., vol. 5(2), pages 1-30, July.
    14. Cong Minh Huynh & Vu Hong Thai Nguyen & Hoang Bao Nguyen & Phuc Canh Nguyen, 2020. "One-way effect or multiple-way causality: foreign direct investment, institutional quality and shadow economy?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 219-239, February.
    15. Gheorghe ZAMAN & Zizi GOSCHIN, 2016. "A New Multidimensional Ranking of Shadow Economy for EU Countries," Romanian Journal of Economics, Institute of National Economy, vol. 43(2(52)), pages 14-33, december.
    16. Manamba EPAPHRA & Moga Tano JILENGA, 2017. "Currency Demand, the Subterranean Economy and Tax Evasion: The Case of Tanzania," Journal of Economic and Social Thought, KSP Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 187-211, June.
    17. Gheorghița Dincă & Marius Sorin Dincă & Camelia Negri & Mihaela Bărbuță, 2021. "The Impact of Corruption and Rent-Seeking Behavior upon Economic Wealth in the European Union from a Public Choice Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-23, June.
    18. Salahodjaev, Raufhon, 2015. "Intelligence and Shadow Economy: a Cross-Country Empirical Assessment," MPRA Paper 61976, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Dasgupta, Manjira, 2017. "Moving towards "Cashlessness" in an emerging economy: A case study of latest policy steps in India," International Cash Conference 2017 – War on Cash: Is there a Future for Cash? 162907, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    20. Misbah Kiani & Adeel Ahmed & Khalid Zaman, 2015. "Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches for measuring underground economy of Pakistan," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 295-317, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karine Torosyan & Randall K. Filer, 2014. "Tax reform in Georgia and the size of the shadow economy," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 22(1), pages 179-210, January.
    2. Branimir Jovanovic, 2015. "Kalman Filter Estimation of the Unrecorded Economy in Macedonia," Working Papers 2015-02, National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia.
    3. Zeeshan Noor Siddiqui, 2017. "Understanding the Linkage among Public Procurement (PP), Corruption, and Tax Morale (TM) Through Agency Theory (AT): A Review," Business & Economic Review, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan, vol. 9(3), pages 258-288, September.
    4. Luisanna Onnis & Patrizio Tirelli, 2015. "Shadow economy: Does it matter for money velocity?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 839-858, November.
    5. Osama Sweidan, 2017. "Economic Freedom and the Informal Economy," Global Economy Journal (GEJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(4), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Hazans, Mihails, 2011. "What explains prevalence of informal employment in European countries : the role of labor institutions, governance, immigrants, and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5917, The World Bank.
    7. Abroskin A.S. (Аброскин, А.С.) & Abroskina N.A. (Аброскина, Н.А.), 2016. "Methods of Analysis of Shadow of Cross-Border Capital Flows [Методы Анализа Теневых Трансграничных Потоков Капитала]," Working Papers 2134, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    8. Elgin, Ceyhun & Oyvat, Cem, 2013. "Lurking in the cities: Urbanization and the informal economy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 36-47.
    9. Friedrich Schneider & Andreas Buehn & Claudio E. Montenegro, 2011. "Shadow Economies All Over the World: New Estimates for 162 Countries from 1999 to 2007," Chapters, in: Friedrich Schneider (ed.), Handbook on the Shadow Economy, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. D’Hernoncourt, Johanna & Méon, Pierre-Guillaume, 2012. "The not so dark side of trust: Does trust increase the size of the shadow economy?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 97-121.
    11. Kar, Saibal & Saha, Shrabani, 2012. "Corruption, Shadow Economy and Income Inequality: Evidence from Asia," IZA Discussion Papers 7106, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Norman V. Loayza, 2016. "Informality in the Process of Development and Growth," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(12), pages 1856-1916, December.
    13. Célimène, Fred & Dufrénot, Gilles & Mophou, Gisèle & N'Guérékata, Gaston, 2016. "Tax evasion, tax corruption and stochastic growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PA), pages 251-258.
    14. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Weill, Laurent, 2010. "Is Corruption an Efficient Grease?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 244-259, March.
    15. Elena D’Agostino & Marco Alberto De Benedetto & Giuseppe Sobbrio, 2023. "Does the economic freedom hinder the underground economy? Evidence from a cross-country analysis," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(1), pages 319-341, April.
    16. Ben Atta, Oussama & Chort, Isabelle & Senne, Jean Noël, 2022. "Immigration, integration, and the informal economy in OECD countries," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1197, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    17. Robert Gillanders & Sinikka Parviainen, 2018. "Corruption and the shadow economy at the regional level," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 1729-1743, November.
    18. Blagica Petreski & Marjan Petreski, 2022. "Unregistered micro-performers of business activity in North Macedonia: Analysis with recommendations for a policy action," Finance Think Policy Studies 2022-07/43, Finance Think - Economic Research and Policy Institute.
    19. Mohamed Amara, 2016. "The linkages between formal and informal employment growth in Tunisia: a spatial simultaneous equations approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 56(1), pages 203-227, January.
    20. Goel, Rajeev K. & Saunoris, James W. & Schneider, Friedrich, 2019. "Drivers of the underground economy for over a century: A long term look for the United States," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 95-106.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2012/047. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.