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. Johnson, Simon & Kaufmann, Daniel & Zoido-Lobatón, Pablo, 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. Roberto Dell'Anno & Adalgiso Amendola, 2008. "Istituzioni, Diseguaglianza ed Economia Sommersa: quale relazione?," Quaderni DSEMS 24-2008, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Matematiche e Statistiche, Universita' di Foggia.
    2. Mohamed Dridi, 2014. "Corruption and Education: Empirical Evidence," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 4(3), pages 476-493.
    3. Arvin-Rad, Hassan & Basu, Arnab K. & Willumsen, Maria, 2010. "Economic reform, informal-formal sector linkages and intervention in the informal sector in developing countries: A paradox," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 662-670, October.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Axel Dreher & Friedrich Schneider, 2010. "Corruption and the shadow economy: an empirical analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 215-238, July.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Axel Dreher & Pierre-Guillaume Méon & Friedrich Schneider, 2014. "The devil is in the shadow. Do institutions affect income and productivity or only official income and official productivity?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 121-141, January.
    10. 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.
    11. Francisco Azpitarte, 2011. "Can corruption constrain the size of governments?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 1-14, August.
    12. 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.
    13. 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).
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Jay Pil Choi & Marcel Thum, 2005. "Corruption And The Shadow Economy," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(3), pages 817-836, August.
    18. Kemal, M. Ali, 2007. "Fresh Assessment of the Underground Economy and Tax Evasion in Pakistan: Causes, Consequences, and Linkages with the Formal Economy," MPRA Paper 2226, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Schneider, Friedrich & Khan, Shabeer & Baharom Abdul Hamid & Khan, Abidullah, 2019. "Does the tax undermine the effect of remittances on shadow economy?," Economics Discussion Papers 2019-67, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. Dennis Nchor & Tomáš Konderla, 2016. "The Shadow Economy of Czech Republic and Tax Evasion: The Currency Demand Approach," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 64(6), pages 2081-2086.

    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.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RIEJ20 .

    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.