IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijbglo/v25y2020i3p307-331.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An econometric analysis of the underground economy and tax evasion in Kuwait

Author

Listed:
  • Awadh Ahmed Mohammed Gamal
  • Jauhari Dahalan
  • K. Kuperan Viswanathan

Abstract

Up to now, no individual study on Kuwait with respect to the underground economy and tax evasion has been conducted using the recent adjusted form of currency demand function model (CDFM) before. This paper estimates the size of underground economy behind tax evasion from 1991: Q1 to 2010: Q4. It applies the Zivot-Andrews (ZA) procedure for the stationarity analysis, and Gregory-Hansen (GH) long run cointegrating technique for estimating the underground economy based on the adjusted currency demand function approach. While the general-to-specific technique is used to estimate the short-run error correction model. Toda-Yamamoto test is also used to explore the causal relationship between the underground economy and the non-oil tax revenues' variable. It finds that the averaged sizes of the underground economy and the tax evasion to the official gross domestic product (GDP) in Kuwait constituted about 24.95%, and 2.83% respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Awadh Ahmed Mohammed Gamal & Jauhari Dahalan & K. Kuperan Viswanathan, 2020. "An econometric analysis of the underground economy and tax evasion in Kuwait," International Journal of Business and Globalisation, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 25(3), pages 307-331.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijbglo:v:25:y:2020:i:3:p:307-331
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=109021
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Q M Ahmed & M Haider Hussain, 2008. "Estimating the Black Economy through a Monetary Approach: A Case Study of Pakistan," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 13(1), pages 45-60, March.
    2. Schneider Friedrich & Hametner Bettina, 2014. "The Shadow Economy in Colombia: Size and Effects on Economic Growth," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(2), pages 293-325, April.
    3. Kumar, Saten & Webber, Don J. & Fargher, Scott, 2013. "Money demand stability: A case study of Nigeria," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 978-991.
    4. Schneider, Friedrich, 2005. "Shadow economies around the world: what do we really know?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 598-642, September.
    5. Roberto Dell'Anno & Ferda Halicioglu, 2010. "An ARDL model of unrecorded and recorded economies in Turkey," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(6), pages 627-646, November.
    6. Lars P. Feld & Friedrich Schneider, 2010. "Survey on the Shadow Economy and Undeclared Earnings in OECD Countries," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(2), pages 109-149, May.
    7. Krolzig, Hans-Martin & Hendry, David F., 2001. "Computer automation of general-to-specific model selection procedures," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 25(6-7), pages 831-866, June.
    8. Zivot, Eric & Andrews, Donald W K, 2002. "Further Evidence on the Great Crash, the Oil-Price Shock, and the Unit-Root Hypothesis," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 25-44, January.
    9. Leandro Medina & Mr. Friedrich Schneider, 2018. "Shadow Economies Around the World: What Did We Learn Over the Last 20 Years?," IMF Working Papers 2018/017, International Monetary Fund.
    10. Philip Cagan, 1958. "The Demand for Currency Relative to Total Money Supply," NBER Chapters, in: The Demand for Currency Relative to Total Money Supply, pages 1-37, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Termos, Ali & Naufal, George & Genc, Ismail, 2013. "Remittance outflows and inflation: The case of the GCC countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 45-47.
    12. Schwert, G William, 2002. "Tests for Unit Roots: A Monte Carlo Investigation," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 5-17, January.
    13. Axel Dreher & Friedrich Schneider, 2010. "Corruption and the shadow economy: an empirical analysis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 215-238, July.
    14. Hassan, Mai & Schneider, Friedrich, 2016. "Size and Development of the Shadow Economies of 157 Countries Worldwide: Updated and New Measures from 1999 to 2013," IZA Discussion Papers 10281, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Torgler, Benno & Schneider, Friedrich, 2009. "The impact of tax morale and institutional quality on the shadow economy," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 228-245, April.
    16. Dabla-Norris, Era & Gradstein, Mark & Inchauste, Gabriela, 2008. "What causes firms to hide output? The determinants of informality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1-2), pages 1-27, February.
    17. Leandro Medina & Friedrich Schneider, 2017. "Shadow Economies around the World: New Results for 158 Countries over 1991-2015," CESifo Working Paper Series 6430, CESifo.
    18. Hildegart Ahumada & Facundo Alvaredo & Alfredo Canavese, 2007. "The Monetary Method And The Size Of The Shadow Economy: A Critical Assessment," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 53(2), pages 363-371, June.
    19. Toda, Hiro Y. & Yamamoto, Taku, 1995. "Statistical inference in vector autoregressions with possibly integrated processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1-2), pages 225-250.
    20. Michael Pickhardt & Jordi Sarda Pons, 2006. "Size and scope of the underground economy in Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(14), pages 1707-1713.
    21. Friedrich Schneider & Friedrich Schneider, 2008. "Shadow Economies and Corruption all over the World: What do we Really Know?," Chapters, in: Michael Pickhardt & Edward Shinnick (ed.), The Shadow Economy, Corruption and Governance, chapter 7, pages 122-187, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    22. Sturm, Michael & Adolf, Petra & Peschel, Dominik & Stráský, Jan, 2008. "The Gulf Cooperation Council countries: economic structures, recent developments and role in the global economy," Occasional Paper Series 92, European Central Bank.
    23. Buehn, Andreas & Schneider, Friedrich, 2008. "MIMIC Models, Cointegration and Error Correction: An Application to the French Shadow Economy," IZA Discussion Papers 3306, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    24. Mina Vlachaki, 2015. "The Impact of the Shadow Economy on Indirect Tax Revenues," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 234-265, July.
    25. repec:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i::p:109-149 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Alexandru Adriana Anamaria & Dobre Ion & Ghinararu Catalin, 2009. "Estimating The Size Of Romanian Shadow Economy Using The Currency Demand Approach," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 2(1), pages 623-631, May.
    27. Michael Sturm & Jan Strasky & Petra Adolf & Dominik Peschel, 2008. "The Gulf Cooperation Council countries – economic structures, recent developments and role in the global economy," Occasional Paper Series 92, European Central Bank.
    28. Hildegart Ahumada & Facundo Alvaredo & Alfredo Canavese, 2009. "The Monetary Method to Measure the Size of the Shadow Economy. A Critical Examination of its Use," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 60(5), pages 1069-1078.
    29. Freund, Caroline & Spatafora, Nikola, 2008. "Remittances, transaction costs, and informality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 356-366, June.
    30. Loayza, Norman V., 1996. "The economics of the informal sector: a simple model and some empirical evidence from Latin America," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 129-162, December.
    31. Gregory, Allan W. & Hansen, Bruce E., 1996. "Residual-based tests for cointegration in models with regime shifts," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 99-126, January.
    32. Friedrich Schneider & Andreas Buehn & Claudio Montenegro, 2010. "New Estimates for the Shadow Economies all over the World," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 443-461.
    33. Shahamak Rezaei & Marco Goli & Léo-Paul Dana, 2014. "Beyond legal entrepreneurship: the case of Austria," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 21(2), pages 202-215.
    34. Chiumya, Chiza, 2007. "The Parallel Economy in Malawi: Size, Effect on Tax Revenue and Policy Options," MPRA Paper 9860, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    35. Zapata, Hector O & Rambaldi, Alicia N, 1997. "Monte Carlo Evidence on Cointegration and Causation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 59(2), pages 285-298, May.
    36. Macias, Jose Brambila & Cazzavillan, Guido, 2009. "The dynamics of parallel economies. Measuring the informal sector in Mexico," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 189-199, September.
    37. Ahmed Gulzar & Novaira Junaid & Adnan Haider, 2010. "What is Hidden in the Hidden Economy of Pakistan? Size, Causes, Issues, and Implications," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 49(4), pages 665-704.
    38. Dominik H. Enste & Friedrich Schneider, 2000. "Shadow Economies: Size, Causes, and Consequences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 77-114, March.
    39. Ceyhun Elgin & Oguz Oztunali, 2012. "Shadow Economies around the World: Model Based Estimates," Working Papers 2012/05, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    40. B. Bhaskara Rao & Rup Singh & Saten Kumar, 2010. "Do we need time series econometrics?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(7), pages 695-697.
    41. B. Bhaskara Rao & Saten Kumar, 2009. "Cointegration, structural breaks and the demand for money in Bangladesh," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(10), pages 1277-1283.
    42. Shahamak Rezaei & Marco Goli & Léo Paul Dana, 2014. "Beyond legal entrepreneurship: the case of Austria," Post-Print hal-02049290, HAL.
    43. Friedrich Schneider & Dominik Enste, 1999. "Shadow Economies Around the World - Size, Causes, and Consequences," CESifo Working Paper Series 196, CESifo.
    44. Tālis J. Putniņš & Arnis Sauka, 2011. "Size and determinants of shadow economies in the Baltic States," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 11(2), pages 5-25, December.
    45. Ahiabu, Stephen, 2006. "Inflation and the underground economy," MPRA Paper 763, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2006.
    46. Mr. Ebrima A Faal, 2003. "Currency Demand, the Underground Economy, and, Tax Evasion—The Case of Guyana," IMF Working Papers 2003/007, International Monetary Fund.
    47. Schneider, Friedrich, 2004. "The Size of the Shadow Economies of 145 Countries all over the World: First Results over the Period 1999 to 2003," IZA Discussion Papers 1431, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    48. Bushra Yasmin & Hira Rauf, 2004. "Measuring the Underground Economy and its Impact on the Economy of Pakistan," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 93-103, Jul-Dec.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gamal, Awadh Ahmed Mohammed & Rambeli, Norimah & Abdul Jalil, Norasibah & Kuperan Viswanathan, K., 2019. "A modified Currency Demand Function and the Malaysian shadow economy: Evidence from ARDL bounds testing approach," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 266-281.
    2. Awadh Ahmed Mohammed Gamal & Jauhari Dahalan & K. Kuperan Viswanathan, 2019. "Estimating the underground economy, illegal money and tax evasion in Qatar," Journal of Financial Crime, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(4), pages 1048-1064, October.
    3. Khurrum S. Mughal & Friedrich G. Schneider & Zafar Hayat, 2020. "Intensity of Regulations as a Cause of the Informal Sector," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 15(2), pages 135-154, August.
    4. Afonso, Oscar & Neves, Pedro Cunha & Pinto, Tiago, 2020. "The non-observed economy and economic growth: A meta-analysis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(1).
    5. Schneider Friedrich & Buehn Andreas, 2017. "Shadow Economy: Estimation Methods, Problems, Results and Open questions," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-29, March.
    6. Feige, Edgar L., 2015. "Reflections on the meaning and measurement of Unobserved Economies: What do we really know about the “Shadow Economy”?," MPRA Paper 68466, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Chletsos, Michael & Sintos, Andreas, 2021. "Hide and seek: IMF intervention and the shadow economy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 292-319.
    8. Psychoyios, Dimitrios & Missiou, Olympia & Dergiades, Theologos, 2021. "Energy based estimation of the shadow economy: The role of governance quality," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 797-808.
    9. Manamba EPAPHRA & Moga Tano JILENGA, 2017. "Currency Demand, the Subterranean Economy and Tax Evasion: The Case of Tanzania," Journal of Economic and Social Thought, KSP Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 187-211, June.
    10. Khorana, Sangeeta & Caram, Santiago & Biagetti, Marco, 2021. "Vicious Circle or New Paradigm? Exploring the Impact of Shadow Economy on Labour Market in Latin America and Eurozone," GLO Discussion Paper Series 983, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Dell’Anno, Roberto & Davidescu, Adriana AnaMaria, 2019. "Estimating shadow economy and tax evasion in Romania. A comparison by different estimation approaches," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 130-149.
    12. Friedrich SCHNEIDER, 2016. "Estimating the Size of the Shadow Economy: Methods, Problems and Open Questions," Turkish Economic Review, KSP Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 256-280, June.
    13. Mughal, Khurrum & Schneider, Friedrich, 2018. "Shadow Economy in Pakistan: Its Size and Interaction with Official Economy," MPRA Paper 87087, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Emmanuel Umoru Haruna & Usman Alhassan, 2022. "Does digitalization limit the proliferation of the shadow economy in African countries? An in‐depth panel analysis," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(S1), pages 34-62, July.
    15. Dagmara Nikulin & Ewa Lechman, 2021. "Shadow Economy in Poland: Results of the Survey," SpringerBriefs in Economics, in: Shadow Economy in Poland, chapter 0, pages 49-65, Springer.
    16. Leandro Medina & Friedrich Schneider, 2019. "Shedding Light on the Shadow Economy: A Global Database and the Interaction with the Official One," CESifo Working Paper Series 7981, CESifo.
    17. Elena D’Agostino & Marco Alberto De Benedetto & Giuseppe Sobbrio, 2023. "Does the economic freedom hinder the underground economy? Evidence from a cross-country analysis," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(1), pages 319-341, April.
    18. Dennis Nchor, 2021. "Shadow economies and tax evasion: The case of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 43(1), pages 21-37, March.
    19. Nedra Baklouti & Younes Boujelbene, 2020. "A simultaneous equation model of economic growth and shadow economy: Is there a difference between the developed and developing countries?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 151-170, February.
    20. Paraskevi Koufopoulou & Colin C. Williams & Athanassios Vozikis & Kyriakos Souliotis & Antonios Samprakos, 2021. "Estimating Shadow Economy Size in Greece 2000 - 2018: A Flexible MIMIC Approach," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 71(3-4), pages 23-47, July-Dece.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijbglo:v:25:y:2020:i:3:p:307-331. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=245 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.