The U S Underground Economy

This book presents new data to give an overview of shadow economies from OECD countries and propose solutions to prevent illicit work.

From the back cover: The papers in this ground breaking book constitute a unique collection of information about the underground economy and how it is manifested in a variety of countries. Section One attempts to measure Canada's underground economic activity and provides a specific estimate of the impact that tax changes have on its size. It also looks at the problems of tax evasion and tax avoidance. Section Two deals with the size of the underground substance economy, the legal aspects of tlhe underground economy in the United States, and an asseeement of the economic activities of the Mafia. Section Three analyzes the underground economy abroad, specifically in the United States, Britain, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Russia and China. The fourth section returns to Canada and examines some policy implications of the underground economy. A survey detailed in Section One shows that a majority of Canadians believe that they do not receive enough benefits for the taxation they pay. Section Four offers a solution to the problem of tax evasion and underground economic activity; the adoption of user fees and user taxes.

In this revelatory book, Sudhir Venkatesh takes us into Maquis Park, a poor black neighborhood on Chicago's Southside, to explore the desperate and remarkable ways in which a community survives. The result is a dramatic narrative of individuals at work, and a rich portrait of a community. But while excavating the efforts of men and women to generate a basic livelihood for themselves and their families, Off the Books offers a devastating critique of the entrenched poverty that we so often ignore in America, and reveals how the underground economy is an inevitable response to the ghetto's appalling isolation from the rest of the country.

Bringing together top international researchers this book provides a worldwide coverage of underground economic activities. It presents estimates of the underground economy for 145 countries - the most comprehensive ever undertaken; an in-depth examination of the underground economy for a select number of these countries; and an analysis of the public policy implications through an assessment of how various governments have attempted to address this issue. The book brings together the latest research on tax evasion, tax morale and other underlying factors that have so significantly influenced participation in the underground economy. It provides a comprehensive overview of the size and development of the underground economy, its major causes and motivations and its effects on the legitimate economy. In addition, it reviews recent public policy concerns by a number of countries and how they have responded with measures to curb these underground economic activities.

Analyses underground economic activities in the US based on information available for the period from the late 1970s through the mid- 1980s. Based in part on national survey data on households, tax compliance studies and microeconomic sectoral studies.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, Vienna University of Economics and Business, language: English, abstract: The phenomenon of underground economy can be observed all around the world, regardless of a country ́s state of development. It has been studied and discussed in literature for several decades. In the 1980s the size of the underground economy in the United States was higher than during World War II for the first time, and it continued to grow due to tax increases in the 1990s. In addition, globalization and the resulting greater competition as well as the increasing number of unregistered immigrants give rise to unrecorded activities. In this paper I will focus on the causes and effects of the underground economy in the United States. Therefore, I will first explain the main motivators for individuals to take action in the unofficial economy, such as a legal framework consisting of high tax schemes and social security burdens as well as the institutional quality in terms of bureaucracy and regulatory discretion. Second, I will examine some of the most affected sectors. In this context I will especially concentrate on underground immigrants, contraband trade, and money laundering as well as labor-intense services undertaken by not-registered workers. Finally, I will address the results and effects of the underground economy on the recorded one and its labor and money markets. In this section of the paper I will also show how the U.S. underground economy is related to other phenomena such as the budget deficit, the "gray area phenomenon" and corruption. In the final part of the paper I will focus on possible solutions to reduce the extent of underground activities. I will especially emphasize some methods to measure and estimate invisible economic action on the one hand and on the implementation of policy engagement on the other. A brief conclusion in the end sums up the main points and provides an overview

Monograph which aims to measure the second economy of moonlighting in the USA and the relative importance of the black economy to a nation's economic well-being. Other countries dealt with are: United Kingdom, USSR, Italy, Norway, Colombia, Canada etc., all contributed by various authors.

This original and insightful handbook presents the latest research on the size and development of the shadow economy (also known as the black or underground economy), an integral component of the most developing and many developed countries' economies.