Shadow economies all over the world: new estimates for 162 countries from 1999 to 2007

Source - Schneider, Friedrich; Buehn, Andreas; Montenegro, Claudio E.

Description - Three researchers from the World Bank have made a serious attempt to capture a country's "shadow economy" (as a percentage of GDP) for 162 countries over a 9 year period. In the paper listed below, they elucidate their methods for capturing this clandestine concept. The authors find signficant variation in the sample, as they find that developing countries have more than twice the level of a "shadow economy" of the 25 welathy, OECD countries in the sample, which they argue increases the burden of taxation and decreases the quality of public goods and services.

Tags - Education, Health, Construction, Defence, Money Laundering, Organised Crime, Global, Empirical Data Analysis, Comparative Analysis

Collection Date - 1999-2007

URL to Database Source - http://tinyurl.com/3ud8bn3