This paper examines the drivers, and reestimates the size of shadow economies in Europe, with a focus on the emerging economies, and recommends policies to increase formality. The size of shadow economies declined across Europe in recent years but remains significant, especially in Eastern Europe. In the emerging European economies, the key determinants of shadow economy size are regulatory quality, government effectiveness, and human capital. The paper argues that a comprehensive package of reforms, focused on country-specific drivers, is needed to successfully combat the shadow economy. The menu of policies most relevant for Europe’s emerging economies include: reducing regulatory and administrative burdens, promoting transparency and improving government effectiveness, as well as improving tax compliance, automating procedures, and promoting electronic payments.
We survey several mechanisms that explain the composition of international capital flows: foreign direct investment, foreign portfolio investment and debt flows (bank loans and bonds). We focus on information frictions such as adverse selection and moral hazard, and exposure to liquidity shocks, and discuss the following implications for composition of capital flows: 1. home court information advantage; 2. panic-based capital-flow reversals; 3. information-liquidity trade-off in the presence of source and host country liquidity shocks; 4. moral hazard in international debt contracts; and 5. risk sharing role of domestic bonds in the presence of home bias in goods and equity.
We study the properties of the IMF-WEO estimates of real-time output gaps for countries in the euro area as well as the determinants of their revisions over 1994-2017. The analysis shows that staff typically saw economies as operating below their potential. In real time, output gaps tend to have large and negative averages that are largely revised away in later vintages. Most of the mis-measurement in real time can be explained by the difficulty in predicting recessions and by overestimation of the economy’s potential capacity. We also find, in line with earlier literature, that real-time output gaps are not useful for predicting inflation. In addition, countries where slack (and potential growth) is overestimated to a larger extent primary fiscal balances tend to be lower and public debt ratios are higher and increase faster than projected. Previous research suggests that national authorities’ real-time output gaps suffer from a similar bias. To the extent these estimates play a role in calibrating fiscal policy, over-optimism about long-term growth could contribute to excessive deficits and debt buildup.
AcknowledgmentsThis departmental paper was led by Ravi Balakrishnan and Nir Klein, under the overall guidance of Jörg Decressin. It has benefited immensely from review and comments by many IMF staff colleagues in the European, Fiscal Affairs, Strategy Policy and Review, and Research Departments. We gained many insights from participants at numerous presentations of this work, including at the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and several national authorities in the context of Article IV Consultations. Estefania Cohn Bech, Chun Jin, and Christine Rubio provided invaluable help with data management and document production. Thanks are also due to Houda Berrada for leading the editorial process.The Departmental Paper Series presents research by IMF staff on issues of broad regional or crosscountry interest. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.
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