By

Donal Mac Géidigh
Friedrich Schneider
& Matthias Blum

Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom

Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Austria.

e-ISBN: 978-625-6861-87-9
DOI:
Publishing Date: December 5, 2025
File Size: 3,237 MB ‎
Length: xiii + 72 pages (PDF)
Language: ‎ English
Dimensions: ‎13,5 x 21,5 cm

This Book is completely open access. You can freely read, download and share with everyone.
The shadow economy has long been an area of research for policymakers. The determinants of underground activity of late have been identified as high tax burdens and increased regulation, but has this relationship always existed? This seminal work examines the shadow economy in Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States over the past 145 (from 1870 to 2015) years using the Currency Demand Approach and finds that the underground economy is stabilising. To our knowledge this is the first attempt to estimate the size and development of the shadow economy over such a long period and due to this we get some new insights. Our results clearly show that the shadow economy in earlier times was considerably higher than in the last 50 years. This book also analyses whether a plateau has been reached and questions what efforts could be made to further reduce this informal economy.
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. General remarks
2.2. Historical context
2.3. The demand for currency
2.4. Existing findings
3. Methodology
3.1. Currency demand method
3.2. Variables used in estimating the demand for currency
3.3. Additional remark
4. Emprical Results
4.1. From civil war to the Somme: 1897-1913
4.2. From the Somme to Saigon 1913-1970
4.3. From aigon to the sub-prime crisis 1970-2015
4.4. Limitations of our results
5. Summary and Conclusions
Appendix
Appendix A. Detailed results – United Kingdom
Appendix B. Detailed results – Norway
Appendix C. Detailed results - Sweden
Appendix D. Detailed results - United States
Appendix E. Presentation of the results over 1870 to 2015
References

Donal Mac Géidigh (a)
Friedrich Schneider (b)
& Matthias Blum (a)

(a) Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom
(b) Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University of Linz Altenbergerstr. Linz, Austria.

Since 1986 Friedrich Schneider is Professor of Economics at Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria, and since 2006 he is Research Professor at the DIW Berlin, Germany. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of Konstanz in 1976 and has since held numerous visiting and honorary positions at a number of universities (e.g. at Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia; University of Saarbrücken. Saarbrücken, Germany; Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand). During 1991 to 1996 he was Dean of Social Science and Economics at Johannes Kepler University of Linz and Vice President for Foreign Affairs of the Johannes Kepler University of Linz from 1996-2007. He was President of the Austrian Economic Association during 1997-1999 and from 2005-2008 he was President of the German Economic Association (Verein für Socialpolitik). From 2013 - 2016 he is Chairman of the Academic Advisory Board at the Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany. He has also been consultant to numerous organisations including the Brussels EU Commission, IMF, World Bank.
He has published extensively in leading Economics journals including The American Economic Review, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Economic Journal and the Journal of Economic Literature. He has also published numerous book chapters and books including The Shadow Economy (with Dominik H. Enste, Cambridge Uni. Press, 2002), The Encyclopaedia of Public Choice Vol. I and II (with Charles K. Rowley, Kluwer, 2004), Changing Institutions in the European Union (Edward Elgar, 2004), Readings in Public Choice and Constitutional Political Economy (together with Charles K. Rowley, Springer Publishing Company 2008), The Economics of the Hidden Economy (editor of 2 volumes, in: Mark Blaug (ed.) The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing Company 2008), Handbook of the Shadow Economy (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011), and The Shadow Economy (with Colin C. Williams, The Institute of Economic Affairs, 2013).
He was the editor of the Journal of Public Choice from 1991 to 2004 and Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik from 2000 to 2004.
He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in October 1998.

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