The Shadow Economy and Shadow Labor Force: A Survey of Recent Developments

Friedrich Schneider ()

No 8278, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This survey presents the various methods to estimate the size of the shadow economy, their strengths and weaknesses and the estimation results. The purpose of the survey is threefold. Firstly, it demonstrates that no ideal method to estimate the size and development of the shadow economy exists. Because of its flexibility, the MIMIC method used to get macro-estimates of the size of the shadow economy is discussed in greater detail. Secondly, the paper focuses on the definition and causal factors of the shadow economy as well as on a comparison of the size of the shadow economy using different estimation methods. Thirdly, estimations of the size of the shadow economy and shadow labor force are presented and discussed.

Keywords: shadow economy estimates; shadow labor force; MIMIC approach; methods to estimate the shadow economy; advantages and disadvantages of the measurement methods; shadow labor force and unemployment; micro studies on shadow labor force (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E26 H11 H2 H26 K42 O17 O5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 68 pages
Date: 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-iue, nep-lab and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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