IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp5384.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evaluation of the Underground Economy in Quebec: A Microeconomic Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Fortin, Bernard

    (Université Laval)

  • Lacroix, Guy

    (Université Laval)

  • Pinard, Dominique

    (Statistics Canada)

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to estimate the size and the growth of Quebec’s underground economy, and the corresponding loss of taxes for the government. Our approach is based on a method developed by Pissarides and Weber (1989) and extended by Lyssiotou et al. (2004). The basic hypothesis is that individuals can under-report their earnings from self-employment but not from paid work, from which taxes are directly deducted. We estimate a consumer demand system in which the marginal propensity to consume is allowed to vary with the two types of earnings. We next estimate the amount of self-employment earnings that are under-reported. From this estimate, we calculate the relative size of the underground economy in Quebec. We use data from Statistics Canada's Survey of Household Spending. According to our results, Quebec's underground economy amounted to 4.6% of GDP in 1997 and increased slightly to 5.7% in 2002. For the government, this represents approximately $ 3.3 billion in forgone taxes for the year 2002. This estimate is very close to those reported by Gervais (1994) and Fortin and Lacroix (2009) using very different estimation methods and data.

Suggested Citation

  • Fortin, Bernard & Lacroix, Guy & Pinard, Dominique, 2010. "Evaluation of the Underground Economy in Quebec: A Microeconomic Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 5384, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5384
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp5384.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Panayiota Lyssiotou & Panos Pashardes & Thanasis Stengos, 2004. "Estimates of the black economy based on consumer demand approaches," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(497), pages 622-640, July.
    2. Stock, James H & Wright, Jonathan H & Yogo, Motohiro, 2002. "A Survey of Weak Instruments and Weak Identification in Generalized Method of Moments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(4), pages 518-529, October.
    3. Deaton,Angus & Muellbauer,John, 1980. "Economics and Consumer Behavior," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521296762.
    4. Peter S. Spiro, 1996. "Monetary Estimates of the Underground Economy: A Critical Evaluation," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(s1), pages 171-175, April.
    5. Pissarides, Christopher A. & Weber, Guglielmo, 1989. "An expenditure-based estimate of Britain's black economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 17-32, June.
    6. 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.
    7. Friedrich Schneider & Dominik Enste, 1999. "Shadow Economies Around the World - Size, Causes, and Consequences," CESifo Working Paper Series 196, CESifo.
    8. Lewbel, Arthur, 1990. "Full Rank Demand Systems," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(2), pages 289-300, May.
    9. James Banks & Richard Blundell & Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Quadratic Engel Curves And Consumer Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 527-539, November.
    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. Hans-Georg Petersen & Ulrich Thiessen, 2010. "Editors' Introduction: Shadow Economy in High Income Countries - Much Ado about Nothing?," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 413-419.
    2. Odd E Nygård & Joel Slemrod & Thor O Thoresen, 2019. "Distributional Implications of Joint Tax Evasion," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(620), pages 1894-1923.
    3. Claudio Quintano & Paolo Mazzocchi, 2018. "Behind the GDP: some remarks on the shadow economy in Mediterranean countries," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 147-173, February.
    4. Anna Kireenko & Yuriy Ivanov & Ekaterina Nevzorova & Olga Polyakova, 2017. "Shadow Economy in the Regions of the Russian Federation and the Ukraine," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, in: David Procházka (ed.), New Trends in Finance and Accounting, chapter 0, pages 301-312, Springer.
    5. Quintano, Claudio & Mazzocchi, Paolo, 2013. "The shadow economy beyond European public governance," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 650-670.
    6. Lee A. Swanson & Vincent Bruni-Bossio, 2019. "A Righteous Undocumented Economy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 225-237, November.
    7. Tufan Ekici & Mustafa Besim, 2016. "A Measure of the Shadow Economy in a Small Economy: Evidence from Household-Level Expenditure Patterns," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(1), pages 145-160, March.

    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. Bachas, Pierre & Gadenne, Lucie & Jensen, Anders, 2020. "Informality, Consumption Taxes and Redistribution," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1277, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Philippe Adair, 2012. "The Non-Observed Economy in the European Union Countries (EU-15): A Comparative Analysis of Estimates," Chapters, in: Michael Pickhardt & Aloys Prinz (ed.), Tax Evasion and the Shadow Economy, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Nikolaos Artavanis & Adair Morse & Margarita Tsoutsoura, 2015. "Tax Evasion across Industries: Soft Credit Evidence from Greece," NBER Working Papers 21552, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Olivier Bargain, 2017. "Welfare analysis and redistributive policies," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(4), pages 393-419, December.
    5. Tonin, Mirco, 2011. "Minimum wage and tax evasion: Theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1635-1651.
    6. Braguinsky, Serguey & Mityakov, Sergey, 2015. "Foreign corporations and the culture of transparency: Evidence from Russian administrative data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 139-164.
    7. Marek Kośny & Jakub Sawulski & Aneta Kiełczewska, 2024. "Measuring the scale of envelope wages: Evidence from Poland," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(3), pages 949-970, July.
    8. 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.
    9. Odd E Nygård & Joel Slemrod & Thor O Thoresen, 2019. "Distributional Implications of Joint Tax Evasion," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(620), pages 1894-1923.
    10. 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.
    11. Serguey Braguinsky & Sergey Mityakov & Andrey Liscovich, 2014. "Direct Estimation of Hidden Earnings: Evidence from Russian Administrative Data," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(2), pages 281-319.
    12. Armagan Tuna Aktuna-Gunes & Christophe Starzec & François Gardes, 2014. "A New Estimation Of The Size Of Informal Economy Using Monetary And Full Expenditures In A Complete Demand System [Une évaluation de la taille de l'économie informelle par un système complet de dem," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-01307146, HAL.
    13. Armagan Tuna Aktuna-Gunes & Christophe Starzec & François Gardes, 2014. "A New Estimation Of The Size Of Informal Economy Using Monetary And Full Expenditures In A Complete Demand System [Une évaluation de la taille de l'économie informelle par un système complet de dem," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01307146, HAL.
    14. Armagan Tuna Aktuna-Gunes & Christophe Starzec & François Gardes, 2014. "A New Estimation Of The Size Of Informal Economy Using Monetary And Full Expenditures In A Complete Demand System [Une évaluation de la taille de l'économie informelle par un système complet de dem," Post-Print hal-01307146, HAL.
    15. Hai Zhong, 2018. "Measuring Corruption in China: An Expenditure‐based Approach Using Household Survey Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(338), pages 383-405, April.
    16. Armagan Tuna Aktuna-Gunes & Christophe Starzec & François Gardes, 2013. "A new estimation of the size of informal economy using monetary and full expenditures in a complete demand system," Post-Print halshs-00841346, HAL.
    17. Friedrich Schneider & Robert Klinglmair, 2004. "Shadow economies around the world: what do we know?," Economics working papers 2004-03, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    18. 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.
    19. Todd Kumler & Eric Verhoogen & Judith Frías, 2020. "Enlisting Employees in Improving Payroll Tax Compliance: Evidence from Mexico," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(5), pages 881-896, December.
    20. Dóra Benedek & Orsolya Lelkes, 2011. "The Distributional Implications of Income Under‐Reporting in Hungary," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 32(4), pages 539-560, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    tax evasion; generalized method of moments; household behavior; demand system; underground economy; income from self-employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • E26 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Informal Economy; Underground Economy
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:iza:izadps:dp5384. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.