Schattenwirtschaft und institutioneller Wandel

Illicit work, social security fraud, illegal employment and economic crime are very common around the world. Most governments try to reduce these shadow economic activities through punitive measures or through education, rather than through reforms of the tax and social security systems. Dominik Enste analyzes the causes and consequences of the increasing shadow economy on the basis of an integrated approach explaining deviant behavior. His study combines findings of economic, sociological and psychological research and provides a clear theoretically derived basis for the analysis. An increasing burden of taxation and social security contributions are as well as rising state regulatory activities and the decline of the tax morale the driving forces for the increase of the shadow economy, especially in OECD-countries. Therefore a 'two-pillar-strategy', which could improve the dynamics of the official economy, is outlined for economic policy makers, who will have to deal with this phenomenon sooner or later.