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Does taking the shadow economy into account matter when measuring aggregate efficiency?

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  • Pierre-Guillaume Meon
  • Friedrich Schneider
  • Laurent Weill

Abstract

We analyse how adding the shadow economy to official output figures affects the estimated technical efficiency at the country level. We find that this not only slightly affects the ranking of efficiency scores, but also increases average efficiency in a sample of 87-97 countries, both developed and developing. Our results are robust to the functional form of the production technology and the adjustment of labour to account for years of schooling.

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  • Pierre-Guillaume Meon & Friedrich Schneider & Laurent Weill, 2011. "Does taking the shadow economy into account matter when measuring aggregate efficiency?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(18), pages 2303-2311.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:43:y:2011:i:18:p:2303-2311
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840903166210
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    Cited by:

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    2. Lars P. Feld & Friedrich Schneider, 2010. "Survey on the Shadow Economy and Undeclared Earnings in OECD Countries," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(2), pages 109-149, May.
    3. Sabrina Auci & Laura Castellucci & Manuela Coromaldi, 2021. "How does public spending affect technical efficiency? Some evidence from 15 European countries," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 108-130, January.
    4. S. Auci, 2014. "The role of production chains in Italian industry: A steady connection between Italy's North-West and South," Rivista economica del Mezzogiorno, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 617-658.
    5. Brock, Gregory & German-Soto, Vicente, 2017. "Regional industrial informality and efficiency in Mexico, 1990–2013," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 928-941.
    6. Rajeev K. Goel & Ummad Mazhar & Rati Ram, 2022. "Informal competition and firm performance: Impacts on input‐ versus output performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(2), pages 418-430, March.
    7. Brock, Gregory, 2019. "A remote sensing look at the economy of a Russian region (Rostov) adjacent to the Ukrainian crisis," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 416-431.
    8. Brock, Gregory, 2015. "The informal economy of Rostov Oblast on the eve of the Ukrainian refugee crisis," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 789-803.
    9. Gregory Brock & Constantin Ogloblin, 2014. "Another look at technical efficiency in American states, 1979–2000," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 53(2), pages 577-590, September.

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