IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/intecj/v24y2010i4p443-461.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

New Estimates for the Shadow Economies all over the World

Author

Listed:
  • Friedrich Schneider
  • Andreas Buehn
  • Claudio Montenegro

Abstract

This paper presents estimations of the shadow economies for 162 countries, including developing, Eastern European, Central Asian, and high income OECD countries over 1999 to 2006/2007. According to our estimations, the weighted average size of the shadow economy (as a percentage of 'official' GDP) in Sub-Saharan Africa is 37.6%, in Europe and Central Asia (mostly transition countries) 36.4% and in high income OECD countries 13.4%. We find that an increased burden of taxation (direct and indirect ones), combined with (labour market) regulations and the quality of public goods and services as well as the state of the 'official' economy are the driving forces of the shadow economy.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:intecj:v:24:y:2010:i:4:p:443-461
    DOI: 10.1080/10168737.2010.525974
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10168737.2010.525974
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10168737.2010.525974?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zoido-Lobatón, Pablo & Johnson, Simon & Kaufmann, Daniel, 1998. "Corruption, public finances and the unofficial economy," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 34372, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Afonso, Oscar, 2012. "The impact of public goods and services and public R&D on the non-observed economy size, wages inequality and growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1996-2004.
    2. Kaufmann, Daniel & Batra, Geeta & Stone, Andrew H. W., 2003. "The Firms Speak: What the World Business Environment Survey Tells Us about Constraints on Private Sector Development," MPRA Paper 8213, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Axel Dreher & Friedrich Schneider, 2010. "Corruption and the shadow economy: an empirical analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 215-238, July.
    4. 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.
    5. Sanya Ojo & Sonny Nwankwo & Ayantunji Gbadamosi, 2013. "Ethnic entrepreneurship: the myths of informal and illegal enterprises in the UK," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(7-8), pages 587-611, September.
    6. Alaka Shree Prasad & Biswajit Mandal, 2019. "Time zone difference, skill formation and corrupt informal sector: the role of virtual trade," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 261-290, December.
    7. Prasad, Alaka Shree & Mandal, Biswajit, 2019. "Virtual trade between different time zones, educational capital and corrupt informal sector," MPRA Paper 96963, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Maurizio Bovi, 2003. "The Nature Of The Underground Economy. Some Evidence From Oecd Countries," ISAE Working Papers 26, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY).
    9. Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza, 2009. "Illegal trade in the Iranian economy: Evidence from a structural model," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 489-507, December.
    10. Roberto Dell’Anno & Désirée Teobaldelli, 2015. "Keeping both corruption and the shadow economy in check: the role of decentralization," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(1), pages 1-40, February.
    11. Azra Khan & Sadia Safdar & Nazima Elahi, 2021. "An Evaluation Of The Impact Of Corruption On Tax Morale And Taxation In Pakistan," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 10(3), pages 259-272.
    12. Fedotenkov, Igor & Schneider, Friedrich, 2017. "Military expenditures and shadow economy in the Baltic States: Is there a link?," MPRA Paper 76194, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Sena Kimm Gnangnon, 2023. "Effect of the Shadow Economy on Tax Reform in Developing Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-49, March.
    14. Elijah, Obayelu Abiodun & Uffort, Larry, 2007. "Comparative Analysis of the Relationship Between Poverty and Underground economy in the Highly developed, Transition and Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 2054, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. repec:ces:ifodic:v:1:y:2003:i:1:p:14567827 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Gaetano Lisi & Maurizio Pugno, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and the Hidden Economy: An Extended Matching Model," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 587-605.
    17. Bernard Gauthier & Jonathan Goyette, 2016. "Fiscal policy and corruption," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 46(1), pages 57-79, January.
    18. Thum, Marcel, 2004. "Korruption," Dresden Discussion Paper Series in Economics 11/04, Technische Universität Dresden, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Economics.
    19. Andreas Buhn & Alexander Karmann & Friedrich Schneider, 2007. "Size and Development of the Shadow Economy and of Do-it-Yourself Activities: The Case of Germany," CREMA Working Paper Series 2007-14, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    20. Yuriy Timofeyev, 2011. "How Corruption Affects Social Expenditures: Evidence From Russia," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 5(4), pages 39-51.
    21. Buehn, Andreas & Schneider, Friedrich, 2009. "Corruption and the Shadow Economy: A Structural Equation Model Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 4182, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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:taf:intecj:v:24:y:2010:i:4:p:443-461. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RIEJ20 .

    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.