We investigate the controversial role of the informal sector in the economy of 64 countries between 2003 and 2007 by focusing for the first time on the impact it has on sovereign debt markets. In addition to a standard ordered Probit regression, we employ two nonparametric neural network...

The financial means of international terror and organized crime organizations are analysed. First, some short remarks about the organization of international terror organizations are made. Second and in a much more detailed way a literature review is provided about the financing of terrorist and...

This paper has three goals. First, some theoretical remarks about money laundering (both the demand and supply sides) are made. Second, we provide a quantitative analysis of money laundering and a preliminary review of our empirical findings on the proceeds of transnational crime worldwide, as...

We investigate the size and trends of the informal economy (IE) in ten Balkan nations from 1996-2021 using the MIMIC model. Our findings reveal a consistent decline in the IE in our sample, albeit it remains substantial, exceeding 29% (of GDP) in 2021. We also explore the impact of the COVID-19...

Examines the role of the shadow, or underground, economy. Looks at ways of measuring it, the relationship between the shadow economy and the main stream economy, why it has been growing in size, and its effects on overall economic growth. How can states limit the size of the shadow economy, and...

By using official time series of the Italian evaded VAT base (Ministry of Finance) for the period 1980-2004 we investigate empirically the long-run characteristics of tax evasion and the relationship with the tax burden. We focus on three important issues not analyzed so far. First, using...