ANATOMY OF UNDERGROUND ECONOMY AROUND THE WORLD: WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW? (Published)
Research experts on countries that are transiting from one economic state to another (transition countries) and developing countries have claimed that a large part of economic activities were done within the shadow. In applying the estimation techniques for measuring underground economy for the period 1995–2008, the results indicated the size of shadow activities to be 35–44% of GDP for developing economies, 21–30% of GDP for the countries transiting from communist to capitalist economy (transition economies) and 14–16% of GDP for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies. For advance economies, the value of underground activities grew from 7.9% of GDP in 1976 to about 16% in 2008. Since 2005, academic and political debate on development finance and development aid has raised the issue that shadow economy in countries worldwide is becoming larger than can be imagined, consequently, the need to be concerned about its composition.
Keywords: Anatomy of Shadow Economy, Official Economy, Sam Agbi, Transition Economies, Underground Economy, and Eniola Agbi