Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of the areas of research related to the shadow economy. The results of analyses show that financial market and financial intermediates become an essential part of the issues and that the topic of the problem of poverty among the urban population, low income, drugs abuse and problems of female employment, gender inequity in income in the papers which analyzed the shadow economy issues are very popular. The aim of the paper is to analyze the tendency in the scientific literature on the shadow economy to identify future research directions. For the analysis, the tools of VOSviewer, Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) analyses were used. This study is based on 5361 papers from Scopus and 3773 papers from Web of Science. The time sample of research was not limited for analysis. Time analysis showed that in 2014-2015 the number of papers dealing the shadow economy began to increase. At the same time, the focal point of research moved from general issues (estimation of shadow sector, impact on labour market etc.) to problem of transition from the informal to the formal Economy. In 2019 the number of papers which analyzed the the shadow economy was increased by 95 % compared with the 2014 year, according to Scopus database – by 29%. Mostly the papers with keyword “shadow” (informal, hidden etc.) economy were published under the following subject area, according to Scopus: Social science; Economics, Econometrics and Finance; Business, Management and Accounting; Environmental Science; Arts and Humanities, and according to WoS: Business Economics; Sociology; Public Administration; Government Law; Development Studies; Social Sciences Other Topics; Environmental Sciences Ecology; Area Studies. Most articles focused on shadow economy were published by the scientists from the USA, United Kingdom, India, Germany and South Africa. In 2019 considering the findings from Scopus the high ranked Studies in Systems Decision and Control, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Cities stated to publish papers devoted to shadow economy. Such results prove that informal economy theme and its transition to formal is in the ongoing trends of the modern regulation. The findings from VOSviewer identified six clusters of the papers which investigate the shadow economy from the different points of views. The first most significant cluster merged the paper which contained the keywords as follows: informal sector, informal economy, unemployment, gender, urban economy, labour market, corruption etc. The papers in the second largest cluster deal with poverty among urban population, low income, drugs abuse and problems of female employment, gender inequity in income. The third biggest cluster focuses on criminal and ecological aspects of shadow economy.

Keywords: Shadow Economy, Shadow Sector of Economy, Informal Economy, Informal Sector of Economy, Underground Economy, Underground Sector of Economy, Hidden Economy, Hidden Sector of Economy.

JEL Classification: O17, E26.

Cite as: Zolkover, A., Terziev, V. (2020). The Shadow Economy: A Bibliometric Analysis. Business Ethics and Leadership, 4(3), 107-118. https://doi.org/10.21272/bel.4(3).107-118.2020

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References

1. Alm, J., & Torgler, B. (2006). Culture differences and tax morale in the united states and in Europe. Journal of Economic Psychology, 27(2), 224-246. doi:10.1016/j.joep.2005.09.002.
2. Ayyagari, M., Beck, T., & Demirguc-Kunt, A. (2007). Small and medium enterprises across the globe. Small Business Economics, 29(4), 415-434. doi:10.1007/s11187-006-9002-5.
3. Bangasser, Paul E. (2000). The ILO and the Informal Sector: An Institutional History. Geneva: ILO, 10. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_emp/documents/publication/wcms_142295.pdf.
4. Breman, J. (1996). Footloose labour: Working in India’s informal economy. 278p. Available at: www.scopus.com.
5. Canh, N. P., & Thanh, S. D. (2020). Financial development and the shadow economy: A multi-dimensional analysis. Economic Analysis and Policy, 67, 37-54. doi:10.1016/j.eap.2020.05.002.
6. De Soto, H. (1989). The other path: The invisible revolution in the third world. Available at: www.scopus.com.
7. Employment, incomes and equity: a strategy for increasing productive employment in Kenya (ILO, Geneva, 1972). The following quote is from pages 5 & 6 of the Introduction. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/1972/72B09_608_engl.pdf.
8. Feldbrugge, F. J. M. (1984). Government and shadow economy in the Soviet Union. Soviet Studies, 36(4), 528-543. doi:10.1080/09668138408411553.
9. Fernando, N. (1991). Informal finance in a semi-subsistence economy: A case of Papua New Guinea. NRI Discussion Paper – National Research Institute, Papua New Guinea, 62. Available at: www.scopus.com.
10. Gërxhani, K. (2004). The informal sector in developed and less developed countries: A literature survey. Public Choice, 120(3-4), 267-300. doi:10.1023/B:PUCH.0000044287.88147.5e.  
11. Gupta, M. R. (2020). Globalisation, crime and wage inequality: A theoretical analysis. Indian Growth and Development Review, (ahead of print). doi:10.1108/IGDR-12-2019-0132.
12. Guttentag, D. (2015). Airbnb: Disruptive innovation and the rise of an informal tourism accommodation sector. Current Issues in Tourism, 18(12), 1192-1217. doi:10.1080/13683500.2013.827159.
13. Goel, R. K., & Saunoris, J. W. (2020). Spatial spillovers of pollution onto the underground sector. Energy Policy, 144. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111688.
14. Hart, K. (1973). Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 11(1), 61-89. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00008089.
15. Henru, S. (1978). The Hidden Economy: the context and control of borderline crime. London, Martin Robertson, 194 pp. (book). Available at: https://www.vosviewer.com/.
16. Huerta, A. (2020). Viewpoint: An education in the informal economy. Planning, 86(1), 13. Available at: www.scopus.com.
17. Jahan, I., Pavlik, J.B., Williams, R.B. (2020). Is the devil in the shadow? The effect of institutional quality on income. Review of Development Economics, 00, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12691.
18. Jayanthakumaran K, Verma R., Liu Y. (2012). CO2 emissions, energy consumption, trade and income: a comparative analysis of China and India. Energy Policy, 42, 450-460. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENPOL.2011.12.010.
19. Joshi, H., Lubell, H., & Mouly, J. (1975). Urban development and employment in Abidjan. International Labour Review, 111(4), 289-306. Available at: www.scopus.com.
20. King, K. J. (1975). Skill acquisition in the informal sector of an African economy: The Kenya case. The Journal of Development Studies, 11(2), 108-122. doi:10.1080/00220387508421528.
21. Kloosterman, R., Van Leun, J. D., & Rath, J. (1999). Mixed embeddedness: (in)formal economic activities and immigrant businesses in the Netherlands. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23(2), 252-266. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.00194.
22. Lewis, W. Arthur. (1955). The theory of economic growth. London: Allen and Unwin. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Economic-Growth-Arthur-Lewis-ebook-dp-B00CUFK45E/dp/B00CUFK45E/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=.
23. Loayza, N.V. (1996). The economics of the informal sector: a simple model and some empirical evidence from Latin America. Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, 45(1), 129-162. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-2231(96)00021-8. 
24. Magidi, M., & Mahiya, I. T. (2020). Rethinking training: The role of the informal sector in skills acquisition and development in Zimbabwe. Development Southern Africa. doi:10.1080/0376835X.2020.1799759.
25. Miracle, M., Miracle, D., & Cohen, L. (1980). Informal Savings Mobilization in Africa. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 28(4), 701-724. Retrieved September 18, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1153518.
26. Petersen, H. (1982). Size of the public sector, economic growth and the informal economy: development trends in the Federal Republic of Germany. Review of Income and Wealth, 28(2), 191-215. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4991.1982.tb00612.x.
27. Porter, R. A. (1983). Ecological strategies of prevention in rural community development. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 3(4), 235-243. doi:10.1007/BF01325406.
28. Rigon, A., Walker, J., & Koroma, B. (2020). Beyond formal and informal: Understanding urban informalities from freetown. Cities, 105. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2020.102848.
29. Seto, K.C., Fragkias, M., Güneralp, B., & Reilly, M.K. (2011). A meta-analysis of global urban land expansion. PLoS ONE, 6(8), e23777. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023777.
30. Smith, N. (1979). Toward a theory of gentrification: A back to the city movement by capital, not people. Journal of the American Planning Association, 45(4), 538-548. doi:10.1080/01944367908977002.
31. Schneider, F. (2005). Shadow economies around the world: What do we really know? European Journal of Political Economy, 21(3), 598-642. doi:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2004.10.002.
32. Schneider, F., Buehn, A., & Montenegro, C.E. (2010). New estimates for the shadow economies all over the world. International Economic Journal, 24(4), 443-461. doi:10.1080/10168737.2010.525974.
33. Schneider, F., & Enste, D.H. (2000). Shadow economies: Size, causes, and consequences. Journal of Economic Literature, 38(1), 77-114. doi:10.1257/jel.38.1.77.
34. Scraton, P., & South, N. (1984). The ideological construction of the hidden economy: Private justice and work-related crime. Contemporary Crises, 8(1), 1-18. doi:10.1007/BF00729541.
35. Serrano-López, M. (2020). Violence and corruption as maximization strategies in illegal markets: The case of coca. [Violencia y corrupción como estrategias de maximización en mercados ilegales: El caso de la coca]. Cuadernos De Economia (Colombia), 39(81), 949-974. doi:10.15446/cuad.econ.v39n81.56155.
36. Taylor, I. (1979). Book Review: The Hidden Economy: the context and control of borderline crime. Sociology, 13(2), 325-327. doi:10.1177/003803857901300217.
37. The 2030 development agenda. Targets for Goal #8: Decent work and economic growth. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/sdg-2030/goal-8/WCMS_403787/lang–en/index.htm.
38. Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc90/pdf/pr-25res.pdf.
39. Turcott Cervantes, D.E., Romero, E.O., del Consuelo Hernández Berriel, M., Martínez, A. L., del Consuelo Mañón Salas, M., & Lobo, A. (2021). Assessment of some governance aspects in waste management systems: A case study in Mexican municipalities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 278. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123320.
40. Valencia, G.A.D., Norato, O.M.G., Paez, A.A.V., Romero, R. (2020). Informal forms of financing of informal merchants in Colombia Cases: Cucuta, Ibague and Villavicencio. Cuadernos de Economia, 42(123), 259-274. DOI: 10.32826/cude.v43i123.126.
41. Vasylieva, T., Bilan, Y., Starchenko, L., Woźniak, A. (2020). Green intellectual capital for sustainable business model: bibliometric analysis. In Proceedings of the 34th International Business Information Management Association (IBIMA) conference. Available at: https://ibima.org/conference/35th-ibima-conference/.
42. Watts, A. G. (1981). Careers education and the informal economies. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 9(1), 24-35. doi:10.1080/03069888108258198.
43. Webb, J.W., Tihanyi, L., Ireland, R.D., & Sirmon, D.G. (2009). You say illegal, I say legitimate: Entrepreneurship in the informal economy. Academy of Management Review, 34(3), 492-510. doi:10.5465/AMR.2009.40632826.  
44. Werlin, H.H. (1974). The informal sector: The implications of the ILO’s study of Kenya. African Studies Review, 17(1), 205-212. doi:10.2307/523586.
45. Young, G. (2020). Urban informal economies in peacebuilding: Competing perspectives and implications for theory and praxis. Third World Quarterly. doi:10.1080/01436597.2020.1799192.