Evaluating Policy Measures to Tackle Undeclared Work : The Role of Stakeholder Collaboration in Building Trust and Improving Policy-Making

The aim of this paper is to examine and analyse the realm of policy evaluation approaches and methods as they relate to assessing measures to tackle undeclared work. The discussion is set at the backdrop of a brief review of the more prominent theoretical and conceptual considerations in the policy evaluation literature. The paper then investigates results from policy assessments and evaluations illuminated in the previous GREY working papers, as well as some selected from the Eurofound database. The analysis of a limited sample of available policy evaluations and results demonstrates that a common probable cause of policy failure with regards to measures to tackle undeclared work in the GREY countries is an apparent lack of knowledge and understanding of the needs, attitudes and abilities of policy beneficiaries and targets. This strongly suggests non-existent or inadequate engagement of all stakeholders in the initial policy evaluation or feasibility study stage of the policy-making process. This exploratory effort has identified the adoption of a collaborative stakeholder strategy to tackling the undeclared economy as a major recommendation for moving forward