Working in the shadow: Survey techniques for measuring and explaining undeclared work

Little is known about the size and determinants of undeclared work. While approaches to measure the shadow economy have been extensively discussed, conventional surveys dominate research on undeclared work. We review and extend this literature by first referring to the most recent survey data on und...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of economic behavior & organization 2022-08, Vol.200, p.661-671
Main Authors: Burgstaller, Lilith, Feld, Lars P., Pfeil, Katharina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Experimental survey
Survey data
Undeclared work
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Summary:Little is known about the size and determinants of undeclared work. While approaches to measure the shadow economy have been extensively discussed, conventional surveys dominate research on undeclared work. We review and extend this literature by first referring to the most recent survey data on undeclared work in Germany and, second, by discussing four experimental survey techniques as well as their few applications to questions of undeclared work. We argue that the randomized response technique and list experiments would validate and improve prevalence estimates of undeclared work, whereas careful design of information provision experiments and discrete choice experiments would fill the gap on determinants that causally affect decisions to supply and demand undeclared work.
ISSN:0167-2681
1879-1751
DOI:10.1016/j.jebo.2022.06.016