The large underground economy of Italy

Article Excerpt

An informal economy (or underground economy) is the part of an economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government. Informal economic activity ranges from unregistered legal activities to outright illegal activities. Examples include undocumented employment, fraudulent accounting practices, small-scale farming, gambling, prostitution, drug dealing and smuggling. Economists identify two main factors that drive economic activity underground—the pace of economic development and the quality of societal institutions. Other complementary factors that play a role are the tax burden, the extent of regulations, the strength of deterrence, and the prevalence of cash usage. The IMF estimates that the size of the Italian informal economy measures is between 12% to 25% of the overall economy, making Italy the country with the largest informal sector among the top global economies. By comparison, the informal sector in Canada is estimated at 10% of the economy and the U.S. at 7%. Italy’s shadow economy was worth slightly less than the entire nominal annual output of…