No abstract

In an age of tighter government regulation, many individuals and businesses are distorting our notion of the size of the Australian economy by actively participating in the underground economy. The consequences are clear: policy makers have imperfect knowledge on the state of economic affairs. Although there exists considerable international literature on the size of the underground economy, academics and public officials alike appear to have paid little attention to the extent of illicit economic behaviour in Australia. The aim of this paper is to provide the first known time‐series estimate of the size of the Australian underground economy and to illustrate that its existence has implications for the nature of the business cycle in Australia.

Despite continuous government attempts to increase taxpayer compliance, the shadow economy continues to offer a way for taxpayers to evade their taxpaying obligations. The consequences are clear: policy-makers have increasingly imperfect knowledge about the state of economic affairs as shadow economy activity expands. We provide the first known estimates of the shadow economy for 17 Asia-Pacific countries. We show that, not only have these activities grown over the last ten years, but countries with relatively thin taxpayer compliance initiatives experience the greatest shadow economy activity. Copyright 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Presses de Sciences Po. © Presses de Sciences Po. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays.La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.

No abstract