Purpose – Viewing undeclared work as low‐paid, exploitative, organised employment conducted under sweatshop conditions, public policy has widely treated this illegitimate sphere as a hindrance to development and actively pursued its deterrence using stringent regulations and punitive...

Purpose – It is now widely recognised that in most economies there is a large number of hidden entrepreneurs operating wholly or partially “off‐the‐books”. Until now, however, there has been a degree of silence on the gendering of such entrepreneurship, including exploring whether men...

Purpose – This paper sets out to evaluate critically whether off‐the‐books work in contemporary England is chiefly conducted by employees working for wholly or partially underground businesses, often on low wages and under exploitative conditions. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical...

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate critically the assumption that the main reason for acquiring domestic services from the off-the-books economy is to save money. Design/methodology/approach – Data are reported from an internet survey of 5,500 people living in households with one or more...

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate whether early‐stage entrepreneurs and the established self‐employed in rural communities trade off‐the‐books and whether this tendency varies across deprived and affluent rural localities. Design/methodology/approach – Face‐to‐face interviews...