An estimation of the informal economy in the agricultural sector in the EU‐15 from 1996 to 2019

Friedrich Schneider (), Mangirdas Morkunas and Erika Quendler

Agribusiness, 2023, vol. 39, issue 2, 406-447

Abstract: This study is the first to calculate the size and development of the informal/shadow economies in the agricultural sector for 15 “old” EU countries over 1996–2019. The multiple indicators multiple causes model was used for the estimation of levels and development of informal economies of these countries. The results show higher levels of informal economies in agriculture compared with those in the overall economies. One main contributing factor to this development was a change in the subsidization regime, namely, decoupling Common Agricultural Policy payments from quantities of products produced, introduced in 2003. The effects of taxation, share of imports, and factor income in agriculture are also important for the size of the informal agricultural economy. Finally, we disaggregate the informal work into subcategories, such as self‐employed, family and nonfamily, and household work. The biggest potential for the development of informal economy comes from taxation, regulation, and self‐employment, followed by family work and unreported employment. [EconLit Citations: Q11, Q14, Q19].

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21774

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:agribz:v:39:y:2023:i:2:p:406-447

Access Statistics for this article

Agribusiness is currently edited by Ronald W. Cotterill

More articles in Agribusiness from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().