Issues such as tax evasion and the size and impact of the shadow economy have ranked highly in political and economic policy debates across the globe in recent years. Yet, despite various methodological advances and growing empirical evidence, there are still large areas of interest that have not been explored, or where scientific research efforts are still in their infancy. This timely book addresses such issues from various perspectives in order to demonstrate the extent and scope of tax evasion, the shadow economy and their interaction. Leading scholars examine recent evidence from theoretical and empirical research on tax compliance and tax evasion, and provide an in-depth analysis of underlying methods. Strategies to fight tax evasion are evaluated and the motivations behind it are explored, as are the impact and size of the shadow economy in Europe. As well as promoting a better understanding of the issues, this book intends to stimulate further debate and, in so doing, broaden the exchange of ideas and concepts. Comparing and contrasting differences and common elements of both tax evasion and the shadow economy, this unique book will prove a fascinating and enlightening read for scholars of economics in general, and public sector, public choice and Austrian economics more specifically. Professionals in ministries of finance and national offices of statistics, dealing with tax evasion will also find the book to be an illuminating read.

This book presents new data to give an overview of shadow economies from OECD countries and propose solutions to prevent illicit work.

This book attempts to review and summarize the mostly obscure professional literature on tax evasion and the black economy to produce a text that informs both the popular and political debate about the issues involved.

Fueled by corruption, fraud, and organized crime, the shadow economy also known as the informal, black market, illegal, or underground economy is currently on the rise worldwide. Corruption, Fraud, Organized Crime, and the Shadow Economy addresses shadow economies and the players involved by examining various aspects of criminal law and prosecution

The main objective of this book is to develop a strategy and policy measures to enhance the formalization of the shadow economy in order to improve the competitiveness of the economy and contribute to economic growth; it explores these issues with special reference to Serbia. The size and development of the shadow economy in Serbia and other Central and Eastern European countries are estimated using two different methods (the MIMIC method and household-tax-compliance method). Micro-estimates are based on a special survey of business entities in Serbia, which for the first time allows us to explore the shadow economy from the perspective of enterprises and entrepreneurs. The authors identify the types of shadow economy at work in business entities, the determinants of shadow economy participation, and the impact of competition from the informal sector on businesses. Readers will learn both about the potential fiscal effects of reducing the shadow economy to the levels observed in more developed countries and the effects that formalization of the shadow economy can have on economic growth.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1,3, University of Applied Sciences Essen, language: English, abstract: According to the “Focus” magazine approximately 13 million Germans contributed to the shadow economy in 2006! The estimations of Friedrich Schneider, one distinguished expert in this area, showed that the extent of the shadow economy in Germany in 2007 was about 349 billion Euros, which equals to 14.7 percent of Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP)! The scope of the present assignment is to provide an all-embracing and critical overview of the shadow economy, to introduce the main causes, effects and dimensions of the shadow economy and to find answer the question how shadow activities can be limited. In this context the hidden sector can be defined as all economic activities that are not recorded in the national accounts, but normally should be a part of them and be included in GDP. These actions can be on the one hand absolutely legal in the self-sufficient economy like do-it-your-self, neighbourhood help, but on the other hand completely illegal activities like dealing with drugs and smuggling as well as legal activities, which are illegally being carried out, e.g. tax evasion or illicit work. The main and most vital reasons for the existence and constant growth of the shadow economy are high taxes or social security contributions burden and the intensity of state regulations. But also sociological-psychological causes like subjective perception of tax burden, falling society values, a bad tax morale and declining loyalty towards the state can have a tremendous impact on the size of the hidden economy. But is the shadow economy a threat to the official sector? At first glance, the question whether the shadow economy is dangerous might appear strange. However, there are several controversial opinions about this matter. The analysis of the effects caused by the existence and the growth of the shadow economy is a contradictory topic. The present assignment characterizes the main negative, e.g. distortion of official economic statistics, lower tax revenues and positive effects, e.g. price stabilization, creation of new jobs of the shadow economy and their influence on the national economy. Following this, the study presents the most popular methods of measuring the shadow economy: direct methods that are mostly based on surveys, the indirect ones that attempt to quantify shadow economic activities by seeking traces left in the official sector and the so-called model approach, which tries to determine the hidden economy by ...