Table of Contents

List of contributors; Preface; Introduction Edgar L. Feige; Part I. The Meaning, Measurement and Policy Implications of the Underground Economies: 1. The meaning and measurement of the underground economy Edgar L. Feige; 2. Information distortions in social systems: the underground economy and other observer-subject-policymaker feedbacks Robert R. Alford and Edgar L. Feige; 3. Policy illusion, macroeconomic instability and the unrecorded economy Robert T. McGee and Edgar L. Feige; 4. How large (or small) should the underground economy be? Bruno Frey; Part II. The Underground Economy in Western Developed Nations: Measurement in Different Laboratories: 5. Monetary perspective on underground economic activity in the United States Richard D. Porter and Amanda S. Bayer; 6. The unrecorded economy and the national income accounts in the Netherlands: a sensitivity analysis G. A. A. M. Broesterhuizen; 7. Assessing the underground economy in the United Kingdom Michael O'Higgins; 8. The underground economy in the Federal Republic of Germany: a preliminary assessment Enno Langfeldt; 9. The underground economy in Sweden Ingemar Hansson; 10. The irregular economy of Italy: a survey of contributions Bruno Contini; 11. The hidden economy in Norway with special emphasis on the hidden labor market Arne Jon Isachsen and Steiner Strom; 12. Canada's underground economy Rolf Mirus and Roger S. Smith; 13. The underground economy in France Philippe Barthelemy; Part III. The Underground Economy Under Central Planning: 14. The Soviet second economy in a political and legal perspective F. J. M. Feldbrugge; 15. Second economy and socialism: the Hungarian experience Istvan R. Gábor; Bibliography.

Promotional Information

This 1989 volume examines the problems of defining, measuring and understanding the implications of underground economies in many of the world's developed nations.