The Underground Economies Tax Evasion and Information Distortion [Hardcover]

This 1989 volume examines the problems of defining, measuring and understanding the implications of underground economies in many of the world's developed nations.The essays in this 1989 volume examine the problems of defining, measuring and understanding the implications of the underground economies that have emerged in many of the world's developed nations. Empirical chapters examine the conceptual problems of how to measure a phenomenon that attempts to defy detection. Alternative measurement procedures are evaluated.The essays in this 1989 volume examine the problems of defining, measuring and understanding the implications of the underground economies that have emerged in many of the world's developed nations. Empirical chapters examine the conceptual problems of how to measure a phenomenon that attempts to defy detection. Alternative measurement procedures are evaluated.The essays in this volume examine the problems of defining measuring, and understanding the implications of the underground economies that are surmised to have emerged in many of the world's developed nations. Specific studies are included for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Hungary, and the Soviet Union.List of contributors; Preface; Introduction Edgar L. Feige; Part I. The Meaning, Measurement and Policy Implications of the Underground Economies: 1. The meaning and measurement of the underground economy Edgar L. Feige; 2. Information distortions in social systems: the underground economy and other observer-subject-policymaker feedbacks Robert R. Alford and Edgar L. Feige; 3. Policy illusion, macroeconomic instability and the unrecorded economy Robert T. McGee and Edgar L. Feige; 4. How large (or small) should the underground economy be? Bruno Frey; Part II. The Underground Economy in Western Developed Nations: Measurement in Different Laboratories: 5. Monetary perspective on underground economic activity in the United SlÃ