In this revelatory book, Sudhir Venkatesh takes us into Maquis Park, a poor black neighborhood on Chicago's Southside, to explore the desperate and remarkable ways in which a community survives. The result is a dramatic narrative of individuals at work, and a rich portrait of a community. But while excavating the efforts of men and women to generate a basic livelihood for themselves and their families, Off the Books offers a devastating critique of the entrenched poverty that we so often ignore in America, and reveals how the underground economy is an inevitable response to the ghetto's appalling isolation from the rest of the country.

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

The most disturbing aspects of the growth of underground economies are the interrelated problems of unreported and unrecorded income. A large and growing underground economy can thwart fiscal efforts to establish budget balance and may significantly undermine the veracity of a nation's economic information system. The notion that economic information is itself endogenous raises the possibility that at least part of the economic malaise observed in most Western nations during the past two decades is essentially the result of a statistical illusion. The essays in this 1989 volume examine the problems of defining, measuring and understanding the implications of the underground economies that have emerged in many of the world's developed nations. Empirical chapters examine the conceptual problems of how to measure a phenomenon that attempts to defy detection. Alternative measurement procedures are evaluated. Specific studies are included for the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Norway, Canada, France, the Soviet Union and Hungary.

This easy-to-use guide covers the history, development, and current workings of cybercurrencies and the underground economy, both in the United States and around the world. The world of cybercurrency has experienced explosive growth in recent years, but that expansion has been accompanied by numerous controversies and misunderstandings about what it is, how it works, and how it relates to the underground economy and illegal activities such as money laundering, tax evasion, and human trafficking. Many illegal or malicious activities are paid for with cyber currencies. This book covers those applications. But cyber currencies also have many legitimate, constructive applications, all of which are explained in Rogue Money in clear, plain English, without embellishment or exaggeration. An authoritative and thought-provoking reference for readers seeking a greater understanding of all aspects of alternative cybercurrencies, this encyclopedia includes entries on economic history, international trade, current controversies, and its impact on the wider underground economy. It peels back the layers of jargon and obfuscation, giving each topic individual attention to show how it works and contributes to the whole.

Analyses underground economic activities in the US based on information available for the period from the late 1970s through the mid- 1980s. Based in part on national survey data on households, tax compliance studies and microeconomic sectoral studies.

This original and insightful handbook presents the latest research on the size and development of the shadow economy (also known as the black or underground economy), an integral component of the most developing and many developed countries' economies.