IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nwe/natrud/y2025i4p117-140.html

The Hidden Economy in Bulgaria: Opinions and Assessment of Bulgarian Citizens

Author

Listed:
  • Iva Raycheva

    (University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria)

  • Vasil Bozev

    (University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria)

Abstract

The aim of the study is to provide the results of a current study of the „hidden economy“ in Bulgaria. It was carried out in October 2024 as a representative online interview among 1000 people aged 20-65 living in the country. The main results show that the share of the hidden economy among the self-employed and those with their own business is higher than that among hired labor. More than half of the hired laborers would accept a payment that they know will not be declared. Slightly over 1/3 of the self-employed and those with their own business think that over 40% of municipal orders are based on bribes. The share of the “hidden economy†is highest in construction, catering and tourism. The most important reasons for the existence of the “hidden economy†are corruption, impunity for illegal actions and ineffective tax control.

Suggested Citation

  • Iva Raycheva & Vasil Bozev, 2025. "The Hidden Economy in Bulgaria: Opinions and Assessment of Bulgarian Citizens," Nauchni trudove, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 4, pages 117-140, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nwe:natrud:y:2025:i:4:p:117-140
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://unwe-research-papers.org/bg/journalissues/article/11732
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nwe:natrud:y:2025:i:4:p:117-140. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Vanya Lazarova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/unweebg.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.