What is it about?
To explain participation in the undeclared economy, the conventional supply-side approach evaluates the reasons people work in this sphere. This article, for the first time in Central and Eastern Europe, explains the undeclared economy using a demand-side approach which evaluates citizens’ motives for purchasing undeclared goods and services. Here, three potential explanations for purchasing undeclared goods and services, grounded in rational economic actor, social actor and institutional imperfections theoretical perspectives, are evaluated.
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Why is it important?
Reporting data from 11,131 face-to-face interviews conducted in 11 Central and Eastern European countries in 2013, the main finding is that all three explanations are used by consumers, demonstrating the need for a synthesis of these approaches. A multinomial regression analysis identifies the specific groups variously using the undeclared economy to obtain a lower price, for social or redistributive rationales, or due to formal institutional imperfections.
Perspectives
It is usually thought that people use the informal economy because the goods and services are cheaper. This paper shows that this is only part of the reason for doing so.
Professor Colin C Williams
University of Sheffield
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Explaining participation in the undeclared economy in Central and Eastern Europe: a demand-side approach, Post-Communist Economies, June 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/14631377.2017.1335453.
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