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Regulation and shadow economy: empirical evidence for 25 OECD-countries

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Abstract

New empirical findings for the impact of regulations on economic activities in the shadow economy are presented here. A comprehensive regulation index covering major fields (e.g. labour and product market regulation and the quality of institutions) has been used to analyze the relationship between the density of regulations and the size of shadow economies. The empirical results from 25 OECD countries for the time period 1995–2005 show that—apart from tax burden and tax moral—main causes for the development of the size of shadow economies are labour and product market regulations, overall regulations and poor quality of official public institutions and administration. These findings can provide additional information on policy measures to tackle the problem of growing shadow economies.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to anonymous referees and to Friedrich Schneider for valuable comments on earlier drafts and to Hendrik Jürges for his great support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cologne Institute for Economic Research, Gustav-Heinemann-Ufer 84-88, 50968, Cologne, Germany

    Dominik H. Enste

  2. Faculty of Economics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Dominik H. Enste

  3. University of Applied Science-Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Dominik H. Enste

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Correspondence to Dominik H. Enste.

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Enste, D.H. Regulation and shadow economy: empirical evidence for 25 OECD-countries. Const Polit Econ 21, 231–248 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10602-009-9081-9

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