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European Union pp 111–121Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Size of the Shadow Economies of 28 European Union Countries from 2003 to 2018

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Abstract

Over the period 2003 to 2018, the average of the size of the shadow economy of the 28 EU-countries decreased from 22.6% (of GDP) in 2003 to 16.8% in 2018. With respect to a decrease or increase in 2018, the development of the shadow economy in these EU-countries is not uniform. In most EU-countries (23 out of 28), the shadow economy will further decrease, but the remaining 5 EU-countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and UK) it will increase.

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Fig. 1

(Source Own calculations, April 2018)

Notes

  1. 1.

    The calculation of the size and development of the shadow economy is done with the Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes (MIMIC) estimation procedure. For a detailed explanation of these calculation methods, see Schneider (2011), Schneider and Williams (2013), Williams and Schneider (2016), and Medina and Schneider (2018).

  2. 2.

    This is the most used definition, for references see footnote 1.

  3. 3.

    The calculated values for 2017 are projections for some countries, for 2018 they are projections for all countries, based on the forecasts of the official figures (GDP, unemployment, etc.) of these countries.

References

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  1. Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria

    Friedrich Schneider

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  1. Friedrich Schneider
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Schneider, F. (2019). Size of the Shadow Economies of 28 European Union Countries from 2003 to 2018. In: Vlachos, V., Bitzenis, A. (eds) European Union. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18103-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18103-1_6

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