Prof. Stelian Stancu PhD (stelian_stancu@yahoo.com; stelian.stancu@csie.ase.ro)
Informatics and Economic Cybernetics Department, Bucharest University of Economic Studies; Centre for Industrial and Services Economics, Romanian Academy
Prof. Constanţa-Nicoleta Bodea Phd (bodea@ase.ro)
Informatics and Economic Cybernetics Department, Bucharest University of Economic Studies; Centre for Industrial and Services Economics, Romanian Academy
Associate Prof. Oana Mădălina Popescu PhD (oana.popescu@csie.ase.ro)
Informatics and Economic Cybernetics Department, Bucharest University of Economic Studies
ABSTRACT
The emergence of the underground economy coincides with the emergence of the state and the imposition of rules, norms and laws, while the evolution of this phenomenon is correlated with the historical stages of state development.
However, the proportionality of the underground economy and tax evasion, as an important component, differs from one country to the other, remaining a major issue for both developed and developing countries for fiscal, economic and social reasons. Therefore, combating the underground economy and tax evasion in the present approach has been and is an important political objective in most countries.
In this context, each country attempts to control unofficial economic activities through various policy instruments such as education, financial punishment, criminal prosecution or economic growth (Schneider, Buehn, Montenegro, 2010).
Actually, it is extremely difficult to obtain accurate information about underground economic activities, the first studies to measure the size of the underground economy were performed in America in the 1950s.
The main objective of the paper was to determine the share of tax evasion identified in official GDP, as compared to the unidentified tax evasion, calculated on the basis of the underground economy.
In this context, the authors have proposed to analyze aspects of the underground economy and, in particular, tax evasion as a main component of the underground economy, methods of estimating the underground economy, models of estimating the underground economy, especially those based on the cash-deposit ratio, MIMIC p-1-q (Multiple-Indicator-Multiple-Cause) models as well as DYMIMIC methodology, but also aspects related to data used and their processing, empirical results and discussions.
The paper ends with empirical results and discussions, conclusions and directions of future research, bibliographical references and annexes.
Keywords: shadow economy, tax evasion, MIMIC-model, DYMIMIC methodology, identified tax evasion, unidentified tax evasion
JEL Classification: C10, E26, H26
