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Individual behaviour in the cash/shadow economy in Australia: Facts, empirical findings and some mysteries

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This paper first gives an explanation of the behaviour which motivates individuals to engage in the shadow economy. It will be shown that people who fear being caught by tax authorities will be less likely to work in the shadow economy and those who earn more money in the official economy will also work less in the shadow economy. The result of a logistic regression shows that if others are seen to be engaged in the shadow economy then this increases subsequent demand for such activities. It was found that on average, a shadow economy worker earned AUS$2135.31 during the year 2000, and households spent AUS$2,293.00 for these services. Using micro-data to calculate an overall aggregate figure for the estimated size of the shadow economy in Australia during the year 2000, it was found that between 4.81% and 8.8% of the gross national income (GNI) was earned in the cash economy.

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  • Friedrich Schneider & Valerie Braithwaite & Monika Reinhart, 2001. "Individual behaviour in the cash/shadow economy in Australia: Facts, empirical findings and some mysteries," Economics working papers 2001-07, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    • Handle: RePEc:jku:econwp:2001_07
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David E. A. Giles, 1999. "Modelling the hidden economy and the tax-gap in New Zealand," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 621-640.
    2. Simon Johnson & Daniel Kaufman & Andrei Shleifer, 1997. "The Unofficial Economy in Transition," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 28(2), pages 159-240.
    3. Friedrich Schneider & Christopher Bajada, 2003. "The Size and Development of the Shadow Economies in the Asia-Pacific," Economics working papers 2003-01, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    4. Giles, David E A, 1999. "Measuring the Hidden Economy: Implications for Econometric Modelling," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(456), pages 370-380, June.
    5. Feige,Edgar L. (ed.), 1989. "The Underground Economies," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521262309.
    6. Tanzi, Vito, 1999. "Uses and Abuses of Estimates of the Underground Economy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(456), pages 338-347, June.
    7. Johnson, Simon & Kaufmann, Daniel & Zoido-Lobaton, Pablo, 1998. "Regulatory Discretion and the Unofficial Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 387-392, May.
    8. 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.
    9. Susan Pozo (ed.), 1996. "Exploring the Underground Economy," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number eue, November.
    10. 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.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kirchler, Erich & Maciejovsky, Boris & Schneider, Friedrich, 2003. "Everyday representations of tax avoidance, tax evasion, and tax flight: Do legal differences matter?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 535-553, August.
    2. Sandra Sookram & Patrick Kent Watson, 2008. "Small-Business Participation in the Informal Sector of an Emerging Economy," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1531-1553.
    3. S. Sookram & P. K. Watson & F. Schneider, 2009. "Characteristics of households in the informal sector of an emerging economy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(27), pages 3545-3559.
    4. Breusch, Trevor, 2006. "Australia’s underground economy – redux?," MPRA Paper 9980, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

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