Abstract
The structure, size and development of the shadow economy in Switzerland is analyzed using different methods of estimation: A survey among experts, the discrepancy between various income measures, the participation rate approach, the money approaches, the structural and the causal methods. There is strong evidence that the Swiss shadow economy has grown between the end of the 50s and 1980. The size is estimated to be in the range between 3 % and 4 % of GNP in 1975. Compared to other countries the shadow economy in Switzerland is estimated to be one of the smallest.
Research on this paper has been undertaken in the context of Grant No. 1.430-081 on “Empirische Erfassung der Schattenwirtschaft in der Schweiz” of the Swiss National Foundation, for whose financial support we are grateful. We are also grateful for the effective research assistance provided by Barbara Gorsler, as well as to helpful discussions with Werner W. Pommerehne, Friedrich Schneider, Mico Loretan and Gebhard Kirchgässner. We also thank Carlo Malaguerra and J. Fiala of the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics. The paper was revised following the discussion at the Bielefeld conference on “The Economics of the Shadow Economy”; in particular useful points were made by Derek Blades, Michael O’Higgins and James D. Smith.
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Weck-Hannemann, H., Frey, B.S. (1985). Measuring the Shadow Economy: The Case of Switzerland. In: Gaertner, W., Wenig, A. (eds) The Economics of the Shadow Economy. Studies in Contemporary Economics, vol 15. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-88408-5_6
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