IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v41y2013i5p544-577.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Contribution of Illegal Activities to National Income in the Netherlands

Author

Listed:
  • Brugt Kazemier
  • Arjan Bruil
  • Annemieke van de Steeg
  • Marieke Rensman

Abstract

Illegal activities such as smuggling, prostitution, and the production and sales of illicit drugs contribute to the national income of a country. In practice, however, they are not included in the statistics, because there are hardly any reliable estimates about these activities. Recently, Statistics Netherlands has started research into the share of illegal activities in the national income. This article presents the estimates for 1995 through 2008. The total contribution of illegal activities to the national income of the Netherlands increased from 1,800 million euro in 1995 to almost 3,500 million euro in 2008, equaling 0.6 percent of gross domestic product. Drugs accounted for more than 50 percent of the total income from illegal activities in 2001. In 2008, this was down to less than 40 percent, whereas finding illegal employment rose from about 10 percent in 1995 to 33 percent in 2008.

Suggested Citation

  • Brugt Kazemier & Arjan Bruil & Annemieke van de Steeg & Marieke Rensman, 2013. "The Contribution of Illegal Activities to National Income in the Netherlands," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(5), pages 544-577, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:41:y:2013:i:5:p:544-577
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142113482354
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142113482354
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1091142113482354?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Lars P. Feld & Claus Larsen, 2012. "Undeclared Work, Deterrence and Social Norms," Springer Books, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-540-87401-0, April.
    3. Hans‐Georg Petersen, 1982. "Size Of The Public Sector, Economic Growth And The Informal Economy: Development Trends In The Federal Republic Of Germany," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 28(2), pages 191-215, June.
    4. Michael Pickhardt & Jordi Sarda, 2011. "The size of the underground economy in Germany: a correction of the record and new evidence from the modified-cash-deposit-ratio approach," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 143-163, August.
    5. Edgar L. Feige, 1979. "How Big Is the Irregular Economy?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(5), pages 5-13, November.
    6. repec:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i::p:109-149 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Max Frank, 1979. "Pour 1979, la fraude fiscale pourrait coûter plus de 200 milliards au Trésor belge," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 81, pages 19-29.
    8. Feige, Edgar L. & Urban, Ivica, 2008. "Measuring underground (unobserved, non-observed, unrecorded) economies in transition countries: Can we trust GDP?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 287-306, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sárkány, Péter, 2014. "Illegális tevékenységek a svéd, a holland és a magyar statisztika alapján [Illegal activities as presented in Swedish, Dutch and Hungarian statistics]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 193-219.
    2. Philippe Adair & Oksana Nezhyvenko, 2016. "Sex Work Vs. Sexual Exploitation: Assessing Guesstimates For Prostitution In The European Union," Post-Print hal-01672874, HAL.
    3. Oksana Nezhyvenko, 2018. "Informal Employment in Ukraine and European Union Transition Countries," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph18-03 edited by Philippe Adair.
    4. Kazemier Brugt & van Veen Michel & IJmker Sander, 2019. "The unobserved economy and the Dutch national accounts after the benchmark revision 2015," Central European Economic Journal, Sciendo, vol. 6(53), pages 1-24, January.
    5. John Cullis & Bruce Morley, 2017. "A methodology for determining the ‘cash economy’ in the European Union via an announcement effect," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 113-129, August.
    6. Philippe Adair & Oksana Nezhyvenko, 2019. "Assessing Key Figures of Prostitution in France and the European Union," Erudite Working Paper 2019-03, Erudite.
    7. Jozef Pacolet & Joris Vanormelingen, 2015. "Illicit Financial Flows: concepts and first macro estimates for Belgium and its 18 preferred partner countries," BeFinD Working Papers 0110, University of Namur, Department of Economics.

    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. Magdalena Anton (Musat) & Nicoleta Luminita Popescu (Groaznicu) & Oana Camelia Iacob & Sorin Adrian Ciupitu, 2022. "Measurement Of The Underground Economy With The Help Of The Managers Of Economic Entities," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1, pages 254-260, February.
    2. Putniņš, Tālis J. & Sauka, Arnis, 2015. "Measuring the shadow economy using company managers," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 471-490.
    3. 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.
    4. Michael Pickhardt & Jordi Sardà, 2015. "Size and causes of the underground economy in Spain: a correction of the record and new evidence from the MCDR approach," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 403-429, April.
    5. Vincenzo Alfano, 2020. "Anatomy of social security contribution evasion in Italy," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2020(2), pages 7-37.
    6. Michael Pickhardt & Jordi Sarda, 2011. "The size of the underground economy in Germany: a correction of the record and new evidence from the modified-cash-deposit-ratio approach," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 143-163, August.
    7. Bashlakova, Volga & Bashlakov, Henadzi, 2021. "The study of the shadow economy in modern conditions: Theory, methodology, practice," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 468-480.
    8. Colin C. Williams & Friedrich Schneider, 2016. "Measuring the Global Shadow Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16551.
    9. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    10. Labib Shami & Teddy Lazebnik, 2024. "Implementing Machine Learning Methods in Estimating the Size of the Non-observed Economy," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 63(4), pages 1459-1476, April.
    11. repec:ces:ifodic:v:14:y:2017:i:4:p:19267788 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Burgstaller, Lilith & Feld, Lars P. & Pfeil, Katharina, 2022. "Working in the shadow: Survey techniques for measuring and explaining undeclared work," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 661-671.
    13. 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.
    14. Lackó, Mária, 1995. "Rejtett gazdaság nemzetközi összehasonlításban [Hidden economy by international comparison - A method of estimation based on the bouseholds' energy consumption]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(5), pages 486-510.
    15. Hajilee, Massomeh & Niroomand, Farhang, 2021. "Is there an asymmetric link between the shadow economy and the financial depth of emerging market economies?," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    16. 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).
    17. Nezhyvenko, O., 2019. "Indirect or Macroeconomic Methods in Measuring the Informal Economy," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 8(4), pages 201-215, December.
    18. 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.
    19. Friedrich Schneider, 2017. "Shadow Economies around the World: New Results for 158 Countries over 1991-2015," Economics working papers 2017-10, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    20. Williams Colin C., 2014. "Explaining Cross-National Variations in the Prevalence and Character of Undeclared Employment in the European Union," European Spatial Research and Policy, Sciendo, vol. 21(2), pages 115-131, December.
    21. Enste, Dominik & Schneider, Friedrich, 1998. "Increasing Shadow Economies all over the World - Fiction or Reality?," IZA Discussion Papers 26, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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:sae:pubfin:v:41:y:2013:i:5:p:544-577. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.