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A Fresh Assessment of the Underground Economy and Tax Evasion in Pakistan: Causes, Consequences, and Linkages with the Formal Economy

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Author Info
M. Ali Kemal (Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad)

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Abstract

Rise in the underground economy creates problems for the policy-makers to formulate economic policies, especially the monetary and fiscal policies. It is found that if there was no tax evasion, budgets balance might have been zero and positive for some years and we would not have needed to borrow as much as we had borrowed. It is concluded that the impact of the underground economy is significant to the movements of the formal economy, but the impact of formal economy is insignificant in explaining the movements in the underground economy. In the long run, underground economy and official economy are positively associated. It is estimated that the underground economy ranges between Rs 2.91 trillion and Rs 3.34 trillion (54.6 percent of GDP to 62.8 percent of GDP respectively) in 2005 and tax evasion ranges between Rs 302 billion and Rs 347 billion (5.7 percent of GDP to 6.5 percent of GDP respectively) in 2005. Underground economy and tax evasion were increasing very rapidly in the early 1980s but the rate of increase accelerated in the 1990s. It declined in 1999, but reverted to an increasing trend until 2003. It declined again in 2004 and 2005

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File URL: http://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/Working%20Paper/Working%20Paper%20No.%2013.pdf
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File Function: First Version, 2007
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics in its series PIDE-Working Papers with number 2007:13.

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Length: 30 pages.
Date of creation: 2007
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Handle: RePEc:pid:wpaper:2007:13

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Related research
Keywords: Underground Economy Tax Evasion

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion

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References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Tanzi, Vito, 1999. "Uses and Abuses of Estimates of the Underground Economy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(456), pages F338-47, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Adam, M. C. & Ginsburgh, V., 1985. "The effects of irregular markets on macroeconomic policy : Some estimates for belgium," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 15-33. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. MacKinnon, James G & Haug, Alfred A & Michelis, Leo, 1999. "Numerical Distribution Functions of Likelihood Ratio Tests for Cointegration," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(5), pages 563-77, Sept.-Oct. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Mauro, Paolo, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Mehnaz Ahmed & Qazi Masood Ahmed, 1995. "Estimation of the Black Economy of Pakistan through the Monetary Approach," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 791-807. [Downloadable!]
  6. Loayza, Norman V., 1996. "The economics of the informal sector: a simple model and some empirical evidence from Latin America," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45, pages 129-162, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Era Dabla-Norris & Andrew Feltenstein, 2003. "An Analysis of the Underground Economy and Its Macroeconomic Consequences," IMF Working Papers 03/23, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  8. Frey, Bruno S & Pommerehne, Werner W, 1984. "The Hidden Economy: State and Prospects for Measurement," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 30(1), pages 1-23, March.
  9. Friedrich Schneider & Dominik H. Enste, 2000. "Shadow Economies: Size, Causes, and Consequences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 77-114, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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