Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate critically the “marginalisation” thesis, which holds that marginalised populations disproportionately participate in undeclared work. Until now, the evidence that participation in undeclared work is higher in marginalised areas (e.g....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance a new explanation for cross-country variations in the participation of small businesses in the informal economy. Drawing upon institutional theory, it proposes that the greater the asymmetry between the codified laws and regulations of formal...

Purpose – Grounded in an emergent recognition that those people in formal employment conduct the vast majority of work in the shadow economy, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate for the first time the degree to which shadow work is conducted by those in formal jobs and the characteristics...

Purpose – Conventionally, participation in the informal economy has been explained by viewing citizens as rational economic actors participating when the pay-off is greater than the expected cost of being caught and punished, and thus tackled by raising the sanctions and risks of detection....

Purpose Participation in the informal economy has been predominantly explained from a supply side perspective by evaluating the rationales for people working in this sphere. Recognising that many transactions in the informal economy are often instigated by customers, exemplified by purchasers...