What factors contribute to the development of the shadow economy. Hello student. Ties to the White Economy

05.05.2022

Usually there are three groups of factors that contribute to the development of the shadow economy.

1. Economic factors:

· high taxes (on income, income tax, etc.);

· restructuring of spheres of economic activity (industrial and agricultural production, services, trade);

· the crisis of the financial system and the impact of its negative consequences on the economy as a whole;

· imperfection of the privatization process;

· activities of unregistered economic structures.

2. Social factors:

low standard of living of the population, which contributes to the development of hidden types of economic activity;

high unemployment and the orientation of part of the population to earn income in any way;

· uneven distribution of gross domestic product.

3. Legal factors:

imperfection of the legislation;

· Insufficient activity of law enforcement structures to suppress illegal and criminal economic activities;

· Imperfection of the coordination mechanism for combating economic crime .

High level of taxation

This factor is recognized as one of the most significant, stimulating the growth and activation of the shadow economy. It has its effect in countries with any type of market economy. However, its operation in each country has its own characteristics. For example, in the United States, high interest rates have a special impact on the development of the shadow sector. income tax. In Russia, the spread of the practice of concealing income is facilitated by high rates of deductions to funds social insurance and high value-added tax rates. In Europe, the tax burden is now constantly growing: deductions from wages, which in the early 70s were 27%, today have overcome the mark of 42% in Europe. Greece, Italy, Belgium and Sweden have the highest taxes in Europe (72-78%). These countries also have the most developed shadow sector. At the same time, developed countries with the lowest level of tax burden - the United States and Switzerland (41.4% and 39.7%, respectively) - have a relatively small shadow sector.

As you know, the tax withdrawal of more than 50% of the profit deprives the company of an incentive for further vigorous activity. According to Western experts, due to direct and indirect taxes, 55% of all enterprises go into the shadow sector.

Economic instability, economic crisis

The departure of the economy into the "shadow" is a consequence of the general state of the economy. With the official economy in a sorry state, working in its informal sector can have many benefits. On the other hand, the crisis state of the economy is forcing entrepreneurs to look for more attractive niches for their activities. One of them is the shadow sector.

Insecurity of property rights

The insecurity of property rights gives rise to the psychology of a temporary worker among entrepreneurs. Appropriate economic behavior proceeds from the fact that if property rights can be violated sooner or later, both existing legislation and law enforcement practice by no means guarantee their reliable protection, it is necessary to use the available opportunities to the maximum. If you can avoid paying taxes, maximize your profits by all means, then this should be done (see Appendix 3).

Unfavorable social background

Growing unemployment, the flow of refugees, non-payment of wages, etc. are an excellent "nutrient environment" for the shadow economy. People who have lost their jobs or have not been paid for months wages, agree to all the conditions of illegal, shadow employment: relations with the employer are sometimes based only on a verbal agreement, no sick leave and vacation pay are paid, dismissal is possible without any social guarantees, and even more so without warning, etc. For employers, such relations are more than beneficial : workers are very interested in keeping the "owner's" shadow business as such; employers have uncontrolled power over employees; direct financial benefits already consist in the fact that no taxes on the wage fund need to be paid, etc.

Political instability

This factor, just like the “insecurity of property rights”, stimulates and develops the psychology of a temporary worker. Since it is not known what will happen tomorrow, all means are good for increasing capital. It is important to note that if during periods of political instability the shadow economy develops very dynamically, then the official one, on the contrary, freezes. Moreover, its volume is reduced not only due to “shadowing”, but also due to the elementary curtailment of activities “until better times”. Depending on the development of market relations, the state of the economy as a whole, there will be more or less reasons for the existence of the shadow economy, the degree of influence of different of them will vary. Also, the development of the shadow economy is influenced by economic freedom, bordering on permissiveness, the deformation of moral and ethical requirements.

Over-regulation of the economy

This factor is manifested mainly in the following actions of the state: a ban on the circulation of any goods or services; administrative intervention in the pricing process; excessive power of the bureaucracy, weak controllability of bureaucratic decisions. The result of this is the growth of the shadow economy. This is manifested in the formation of various types of illegal markets - labor, commodity, financial, currency, with the help of which legislative restrictions are bypassed. In particular, opportunities are being sought to ignore, or at least circumvent, labor legislation that establishes minimum wage rates, maximum overtime, conditions for the use of labor by adolescents, pensioners, women, and foreign workers.

Significant scale of the public sector in the economy

Significant scale public sector in the economy, they give rise to relations related to the distribution of budgetary resources in the form of both direct and indirect subsidies, subsidies, soft loans among state-owned enterprises. This is the nutritional basis for the formation of a sector of informal, and often criminal relations associated with the distribution of resources. On the basis of gratuitous or preferential distribution of budgetary resources, controlled business structures are formed, created with the aim of misappropriating these resources, scrolling them (appropriating inflationary income), legalizing, investing, and transferring them abroad. Thus, the effectiveness of the state is the most important factor determining the scale of the shadow economy.

Economic insecurity

In our opinion, this is the most significant factor. The shadow economy, which has penetrated into all the pores of the economic organism, intensively decomposes and undermines it. From this, the economy becomes loose and unsafe. This leads to the next factor.

national insecurity

With a weak economic security there can be no strong national security.

The objective reason for the rapid growth of the shadow economy is the transition from a bureaucratic, command management system to a market one. The change in the social system is accompanied by a change in the old morality. At the same time, the shadow economy should be based and developed from specific sources.

The first of them is the export of capital, raw materials and energy resources abroad, while the bulk of transactions are not in the literal sense of the shadow, i.e. is carried out legally: raw materials and energy resources are often sold abroad at low prices through intermediary companies, and the corresponding percentage of the profits of the latter settles abroad. According to the tentative estimates of experts from the American Association of Economic Forecasts "Wharton Econometric Forksting Association" in industrialized countries, the total amount of direct and indirect damage from economic crimes reaches 3-10% of the gross national product (GNP), and in developing countries 15% or more.

The second and main source of the shadow economy is economic activity that is not registered by government agencies, which takes place in all sectors of the economy. For example, how can numerous strata of the population survive over the course of 5-6 years of reforms, whose incomes turned out (according to official statistics) to be significantly lower than the subsistence minimum?

On a global scale specific gravity shadow economy is estimated at 5-10% of the gross domestic product. Thus, in African countries this figure reaches 30%, in the Czech Republic - 18%, in Russia - 40%; and the share of the shadow economy in the economic turnover of Ukraine is 50%.

An indicator of 40-50% is critical. At this turn, the influence of shadow factors on economic life becomes so tangible that the contradiction between the legal and shadow ways is observed in almost all spheres of society.

Evasion of official registration can be considered a key sign of shadow activity. commercial contracts or deliberate misrepresentation of their content during registration. At the same time, cash and especially foreign currency become the main means of payment. In solving business issues, the so-called "showdowns" predominate.

The concept of "shadow economy" as a multifaceted, complex and capacious phenomenon includes:

Fixed assets (movable and real estate, resources and funds

production);

Financial resources and securities (shares, bills, electronic cards, privatization certificates, compensations, etc.);

Personal capital of shadow economy structures (houses, land, cars, yachts, dachas, airplanes, etc.);

Demographic resources (persons who are involved in shadow economic activity).

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Introduction

1. Definition and essence of the shadow economy

1.1 The concept of the shadow economy

1.2 Structure of the shadow economy

1.3 The scale of the shadow economy

2. Causes and consequences of the shadow economy

2.1 Causes of the shadow economy

2.2 Evolution of shadow economic activity

2.3 Socio-economic consequences of shadow economic activity

Conclusion

Introduction

There are many unexplored things in economics. But, perhaps, it is difficult to find another such example, when the scale of an economic phenomenon and the degree of its study would be so incomparable. This is the problem of the shadow economy, which covers all spheres of society.

The shadow economy is a very difficult subject to study; it is a phenomenon that is relatively easy to define, but impossible to accurately measure, because almost all information that a scientist-economist manages to obtain is confidential and is not subject to disclosure.

The shadow economy is of interest, first of all, from the point of view of the entire impact on the flow of most ordinary, “normal”, economic phenomena processes: the formation and distribution of income, trade, investment and economic growth in general. This influence of shadow relations in Russia is so great that it poses a danger to the economic security and sovereignty of the state as a whole, and the need for their analysis is quite obvious.

The urgency of the problems of the control work I have chosen does not need special justification. The share and influence of the criminal sector in the economy has approached the line beyond which society is likely to lose control over the direction of socio-economic and political processes.

In the conditions of a criminalized economy, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive study of shadow, hidden from registration and illegal economic activities, both from the standpoint of criminology, forensic science, criminal law, and economic sciences.

The structure and content of the examination provides coverage of the most important topics and issues. The material is arranged in a certain sequence. In the first chapter, you can get acquainted with the definition and essence of the shadow economy. The second chapter focuses on the causes and consequences of the shadow economy. The third chapter provides recommendations for solving this problem.

1 . Definition and essence of the shadow economy

1.1 The concept of the shadow economy

The shadow economy is an economic activity hidden from society and the state, which is outside state control and accounting. It is an unobservable, informal part of the economy, but does not cover it all, since it cannot include activities that are not specifically hidden from society and the state, for example, the home or community economy. Also includes, but is not limited to, illegal, criminal economies.

The shadow economy is the economic relations between citizens of a society that develop spontaneously, bypassing existing state laws and social rules. The income of this business is hidden and is not a taxable economic activity. In fact, any business that results in concealment of income from government agencies, or tax evasion, can be considered a shadow economic activity.

Consider the main approaches to the definition of the concept we are interested in. When studying the shadow economy, researchers are mainly guided by the following goals: fundamental theoretical analysis, statistical evaluation, optimization of social economic policy, improving law enforcement, ensuring economic security.

Accounting and statistical approach. With the accounting and statistical approach, the main criterion for highlighting shadow economic relations is their unaccountability, that is, the absence of fixation by official statistics. The most consistent and developed is the accounting and statistical approach based on the methodology of the UN System of National Accounts (SNA). The concept of the shadow economy is defined on the basis of the main goal of the SNA - the most accurate account of all types of economic activity that provide a real contribution to the production of gross domestic product (GDP).

In accordance with the SNA methodology, all manifestations of the shadow economy are divided into two groups:

The productive part of the shadow economy included in GDP includes the following elements:

1. Indicators of legitimate activities concealed or downplayed by producers in order to evade taxes or fulfill other obligations;

2. Indicators of informal (informal legal) activities, including:

· the activity of unincorporated (that is, directly owned by one owner, often family) enterprises operating for their own needs, that is, the production of goods and services produced in households and consumed by them;

activities of unincorporated enterprises with informal employment(temporary teams of builders, etc.).

3. Indicators of unofficial illegal activities, including:

legal activities that are carried out illegally (for example, without licenses and special permits);

· illegal activity, which is the production and distribution of goods and services prohibited by law, for which there is an effective market demand (production and distribution of drugs, prostitution, smuggling).

The advantage of this approach is the ability to quantify the hidden part of productive economic activity based on the generally accepted methodology of the SNA, the use of calculation results in the formation of economic policy and international comparisons. The results of calculations of the parameters of the shadow economy according to the SNA methodology are extremely valuable for the formation of socio-economic policy, especially in the current situation in Russia, when the problem of control over the shadow economy has moved from the category of purely police to the category of economic and political. However, this approach is not without shortcomings. Let's note the most important ones. Within the framework of the SNA concept, it is not possible to satisfactorily assess the scale, structure and impact of criminal activities that are not related to the production of real GDP. The structure of the shadow economy, on the one hand, includes all types of both ordinary and economic crimes, which excessively expands the boundaries of the shadow economy, and on the other hand, their accounting is limited to the impact they have on the production and consumption of the current year's GDP and the use of this information is limited to the purposes of reducing the errors of statistical calculations.

Formal legal approach. The key criterion for highlighting shadow economic phenomena is the attitude towards the regulatory system. Specific criteria are: evasion of official or state registration, state control; illegal nature.

Integrated approaches. As part of an integrated approach, various combinations of the previously considered criteria are used as the basis for identifying the shadow economy.

Classification of shadow economic phenomena

Let us consider the classification of shadow economic phenomena on various grounds.

Depending on the nature of the result, shadow economic activity is distinguished:

1. productive, making a real contribution to the production of the gross national product;

2. redistributive, not connected with the real creation of economic benefits, but redistributing income and property.

In relation to the official economy, there are internal and parallel economies.

The internal economy is understood as the shadow relations built into the official economy, connected with the official status of their participants. In other words, the shadow economy is interpreted from this point of view as the unregistered activity of the same agents that operate in the registered part of the economy. This approach is consistently implemented by D. Makarov

Parallel (invading) economy - shadow relations that are not related to the official economic status of their participants. Ginzburg V adheres to this position when characterizing the shadow economy, who considers it as a special sector with a special production function, where part of the workforce is employed without official registration4.

Depending on the stages of the reproductive cycle, there are:

shadow production;

shadow distribution (distribution of income hidden from accounting, economic crimes);

shadow exchange (sale of illegally produced products, offenses in the field of consumer market, sale of illegally obtained valuables);

shadow consumption (consumption of own production, satisfaction of destructive, asocial needs).

The interpretation of the shadow economy by most authors includes economic activity at all stages of the reproduction cycle. The exception is the statistical concept that considers the shadow economy as a productive sector involved in the creation of GDP.

Approaches to the definition of the shadow economy also differ depending on the mechanisms of coordination of its individual spheres and sectors taken into account. Allocate in connection with this:

shadow market;

the informal economy;

· power-violent mechanism associated mainly with the use or threat of violence.

If the study of the shadow market as an integral element of the shadow economy is a general rule, then a number of authors do not include the informal sector in the shadow economy. The authoritative-violent mechanism as an element of the shadow economy is recognized only by a few researchers.

According to the types of markets and economic resources in circulation, there are:

· shadow economic relations in the markets of consumer goods and services;

in the markets of investment goods;

in the financial markets;

· in the job market;

Other markets (information, technology, intellectual property).

1.2 Structure of the shadow economy

In the structure of the shadow economy, with a certain degree of conditionality, the following main areas or blocks can be distinguished.

The productive sector (illegal economy) that provides a real contribution to the production of the gross domestic product:

The redistributive sector of the shadow economy includes various economic crimes.

There are two special sectors of the economy, which are also uncontrolled and unregulated, not reflected, as a rule, in statistical accounting. This is the sector of the home and the sector of the community economy. shadow economy law hidden

The domestic economy is represented by the sphere of socially necessary productive domestic labor, which is not paid and is outside the sphere of commodity exchange. Included in the home economy labor activity for the production of products that replace goods purchased with money in the official economy.

Signs home economics are: productive nature, lack of accounting, official regulation, non-illegal nature, lack of exchange in market and non-market forms.

The community economy is represented by a system of production and sale of goods and services, which is based on the exchange in not monetary form. It operates within the framework of communities that are formed on the basis of various forms of social ties: kinship, neighborly, friendly relations, proximity of cultures, religious views, profession, ideological orientation, etc.

The community economy is a form of development of the home economy when the latter leaves the family. If the exchange of benefits within various kinds of communities begins to be carried out in the form of money, the community economy becomes illegal.

The signs of a community economy are: productive, not illegal, nature, exchange in non-monetary form, non-observance of the principle of equivalence, non-regulation, not taken into account.

These sectors, in my opinion, should not be attributed to the shadow economy. This is due to the fact that concealment from accounting and taxation in these areas does not occur. The legislation does not provide for the obligation of official registration and payment of taxes. This activity is not, as a rule, illegal. Such an understanding of the shadow economy is also justified from a criminological standpoint when considering it as a factor in economic crime. The spheres of the domestic and community economy are not connected with going beyond the legal field and are not factors in the criminalization of economic relations.

1.3 The scale of the shadow economy

Measuring the shadow economy and assessing its scale is a rather difficult task. This is due to its very nature - the shadow economy is hidden and arises from the desire to avoid measurement. Various, mostly indirect, methods are used to measure it.

In total, at least 8 trillion dollars of added value is created in the world in the shadow sector annually, without getting into the accounting reports of enterprises and official statistics of both individual states and international organizations. Thus, in terms of size, the global shadow economy is comparable to the economy of the United States, the country with the largest GDP in the world.

In the second half of the 1990s, in developed countries, the shadow economy was equivalent to an average of 12% of GDP, in countries with transition economy- 23%, and in developing - 39% of GDP.

In countries with developed market economies, there is a constant growth in the scale of the shadow sector. In 1998, the country with the highest share of the shadow sector is Greece (29.0% of official GDP). The countries with the largest shadow sector also include Italy (27.8%), Spain (23.4%) and Belgium (23.4%). The middle position is occupied by Ireland, Canada, France and Germany (from 14.9% to 16.3%). Austria (9.1%), the USA (8.9%) and Switzerland (8.0%) have the lowest indicators of the share of the shadow sector. Thus, even in relatively prosperous countries, the absolute volume of the shadow economy is $700 billion in the USA, $310 billion in Italy, and $190 billion in the UK. The most rapid growth of the shadow sector in the 80-90s was observed in Greece, Italy, Sweden, Norway and Germany. For example, the volume of the German shadow economy from 1975 to 1997 increased five times - from 60 to 300 billion dollars. Moreover, the informal sector grew in Germany at a rate of 8% per year - much faster than the official GDP.

The shadow sector of the economy has reached the largest scale in developing countries. Thus, the shadow economy in Nigeria reaches 76% of the official GDP. The shadow sector is also significant in Thailand (71%), Egypt (68%), Bolivia (66%) and Panama (62%). In fact, in most developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, one can rather speak of the existence of a "parallel" or "second" economy, not much inferior in scale to the official economy. While in Western countries the shadow sector is dominated by small firms, and earnings from activities are used as an additional source of income, the situation is different in developing countries. Migrants from rural areas are unable to find work in the legal sector and are forced to extract basic funds in the shadow economy. Widespread corruption and flaws in the legislation contribute to the fact that a significant part of economic activity is unaccounted for by the official authorities.

post-socialist countries. According to various studies, in the first half of the 1990s the shadow sector was most important in the economies of Georgia (43-51% of official GDP), Azerbaijan (34-41%) and Russia (27-46%). For all post-Soviet countries, one trend is characteristic: the shadow economy is actively growing, on average from 26% in 1990 to 35% in 1995. Many companies in the post-Soviet space (even large ones, with the participation state capital) resort to shadow operations along with completely legal activities in the official economy.

In Eastern Europe, the shadow economy has acquired the largest scale in the Balkan countries - Macedonia, Croatia and Bulgaria (about 40% of GDP). In Albania, the economy operates almost entirely in the shadow sphere. In Albania, where the average annual income of a citizen is only $70, today, according to official statistics alone, there are 500,000 cars per 3.2 million people, and 60% of them are Mercedes. At the same time, in 1990 there were only 5,000 of them. Most of the cars were stolen from Western European countries.

Russia. If in 1973 the shadow sector in the USSR was approximately 3% of GDP, in 1990-1991 - 10-11%, then in 1993 it was 27% of GDP, and three years later, according to the Moscow Institute of Socio-Economic Problems, it was already 46%. The peculiarity and uniqueness of the Russian shadow economy is associated with such features as tax evasion, capital flight abroad, double-entry bookkeeping, shuttle and barter trade, hidden unemployment, and corruption. The shadow economy in Russia is unevenly represented in various industries. Thus, according to the estimates of the Russian State Statistics Committee, if in construction the shadow sector accounts for about 8% of activity, then in trade this figure exceeds 63%. Another feature of the new shadow economy in Russia was the widespread hidden employment. According to recent studies, 27% of able-bodied Russians (that's 21 million people) have an officially unrecorded second job, with about half of them employed in "intermediary activities", a third in retail trade, and the rest in the shuttle business.

In the context of the economic crisis, the shadow economy in Russia has a steady upward trend. According to American analysts investment bank Chase Manhattan, in 1999 it grew by 5.4% (official GDP only by 1.8%).

2 . Causes and consequences of the shadow economy

2.1 The reasonsemergence of the shadow economy

The reasons for the shadow economy are different for all regions of the world, however, the complex of reasons for the existence of a shadow business in the market will be more diverse, especially if we keep in mind not the most established sectors of the market economy.

There are usually three groups of factors that contribute to the development of the shadow economy:

1. Economic factors:

High taxes

Restructuring of business areas

The crisis of the financial system and the impact of its negative consequences on the economy as a whole

Imperfection of the privatization process

Activities of unregistered economic structures.

2. Social factors:

Low standard of living of the population, which contributes to the development of hidden types of economic activity;

High unemployment and the orientation of part of the population to earn income in any way

Uneven distribution of gross domestic product.

3. Legal factors:

Imperfect legislation

Insufficient activity of law enforcement structures to suppress illegal and criminal economic activities

Imperfection of the coordination mechanism for combating economic crime.

Insecurity of property rights

political instability.

Depending on the development of market relations, the state of the economy as a whole, there will be more or less reasons for the existence of the shadow economy. Also, the development of the shadow economy is influenced by economic freedom, bordering on permissiveness, the deformation of moral and ethical requirements.

2.2 The evolution of shadow economic activity

Comparison of the results of studies conducted by the sociological center of the academy with a gap of 10 years makes it possible to judge the changes that have taken place over the years in the shadow economy.

The first indisputable fact is the sharp increase in the proportion of the population engaged in shadow activities. In 2010, the share of the population combining work in the official economy with shadow activities amounted to 41% of the number of respondents. Of these, a third (34%) are engaged in unregistered business, and 66% are employed in the shadow labor market. In addition, there are many people who have broken with the official economy and are employed only in the illegal labor market. Taking into account the fact that the interests of a large mass of the population are realized in the shadow economy, the maximum reasonableness of measures of state influence on it is required. Otherwise, the growth of social and political tension in society is inevitable.

The second significant aspect is expressed in the fact that over the years of reforms the shadow economy has occupied a qualitatively different niche in our society. Previously, it was in the role of an antagonist of the ideological system and the command economy, although it compensated for the shortcomings of the latter. Now it and the official economy have a common market basis and, to a certain extent, a common ideological base. But the objective contradictions between them, at the center of which is the state, have become more significant. In everyday practice, this is expressed in the fact that the interest of the state is to replenish financial resources at the expense of taxpayers. And the vector of interest of enterprises and the population is reversed. This is what the shadow economy is based on, reducing the taxable base, and even directly torpedoing the "burden" of tax and other payments. In the current conditions, in which the official economy survives with great difficulty, is not able to provide effective employment and an acceptable standard of living for people, the shadow economy, as they say, is doomed to further development. The possibilities of applying repressions against it are limited, and direct administrative pressure is unproductive. Therefore, it is necessary to search for such economic solutions that will help balance the interests of the state and other subjects of economic relations.

The third important aspect of the problem is related to the fact that the shadow economy has grown to the scale of a parallel economy. Previously, it was only a companion of official commodity-money relations and occupied a few percent of GDP. Participation in it was expressed in postscripts of the volume of work and products, in petty speculation, in various types of illegal handicrafts, etc. At present, its share, according to economists, reaches 20-30%, or even 40% of GDP. It has grown together with the official economy and often competes with it in the use of labor, material and financial resources.

The fourth feature of the development of the situation is manifested in the fact that the shadow economy forms a symbiosis with the shadow activities of representatives of government bodies and is actively asserting itself in the social and spiritual and psychological spheres of society. Penetration of shadow relations into law enforcement agencies, justice and illegal commercialization budget institutions are such that it is hardly worth counting on their self-purification. First, in various structures public service an almost well-oiled system of requisitions has taken deep roots; secondly, with, in principle, the most negative attitude of society towards extortion, many citizens prefer to pay off when solving vital issues.

However, the problem is so acute that countering its growth requires decisive action. Bureaucratic intervention in the economy, initiated for the purpose of profit, suppresses legal economic activity, stimulates the development of shadow relations and turns the state's struggle against their spread into a farce. In addition, the presence of shadow relations in the system of state institutions, in healthcare, education, science, and culture sharply accelerate the process of losing legal and moral constraints in society.

At the same time, there are socio-psychological prerequisites for the restoration of moral restrictions and legal taboos in society, as dissatisfaction with the processes of moral decline and even demonstrative permissiveness is growing in the mass consciousness.

Despite the fact that in 2010, in comparison with 1990, the ideological side lost its significance as a reference point in estimates of the shadow economy, the vector of distribution of opinions about it changed from a positive pole to a negative one. Among the heads of enterprises surveyed in 2010, there is approximately the same distribution of opinions: 2.7% answered that the shadow economy is more beneficial, 29.5% both benefit and harm, 54.9% more harm, found it difficult to answer - 12.9%.

Such a mass mood, in principle, is a favorable basis for the initiatives of the highest echelons of state power to improve economic relations and streamline the system of their regulation.

2.3 Socio-economic consequences of shadow economic activity

The shadow economy is today an integral element of the economic system. Negative consequences are inherent in all types and manifestations of the shadow economy. However, in some cases, some shadow processes also have some positive impact.

The specific socio-economic consequences of the criminal economy are extremely diverse, as this activity is very diverse and diverse. Let's take a look at its most significant implications.

Conclusion

The information provided is an average overview of the scale of the shadow economy, but even this data allows us to understand how strongly the shadow economy affects all areas of our lives.

So, in Russia, parallel to the legal economy, a shadow economy arose, comparable to it in scale. Moreover, approximately the same set of mechanisms is formed in the shadow economy as in the official economic system. It has its own pricing rules, ways to enforce contracts, a specific set of professions with their own code of conduct, and their own investment mechanisms. These shadow mechanisms have changed the lives of millions of people and created special working conditions for enterprises. Specialists dealing with the problems of the shadow economy have begun to talk even about the "shadow order" in Russian society. It is difficult to expect that in the next five to ten years these mechanisms will be transformed into legal rules of economic behavior. Most likely, we are expecting a gradual evolution of shadow relations, the softening and legalization of some of them, and the slow elimination of norms unacceptable to a civilized society.

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Factors of shadow economy development

The starting point in the study of any phenomenon, as you know, is to clarify the nature of its occurrence. As for the nature of the shadow economy, it should be noted that in the scientific literature this issue has not been resolved unambiguously, and this greatly complicates further study of the shadow component of the economy, including effective directions and methods of combating it.

In various approaches to studying the problem of the emergence of the shadow economy, researchers name a variety of factors contributing to this. But traditionally, scientists attribute the following to the main factors in the development of the shadow economy:

High level of taxation. This factor is recognized as one of the most significant, stimulating the growth and activation of the shadow economy. It has its effect in countries with any type of market economy. However, its operation in each country has its own characteristics. For example, in the United States, high income tax rates have a special impact on the development of the shadow sector. In Russia, the spread of the practice of concealing income is facilitated by high rates of contributions to social insurance funds and high rates of value added tax.

Over-regulation of the economy. This factor is manifested mainly in the following actions of the state: a ban on the circulation of any goods or services; administrative intervention in the pricing process; excessive power of the bureaucracy, weak controllability of bureaucratic decisions. The result of this is the growth of the shadow economy. This is manifested in the formation of various types of illegal markets - labor, commodity, financial, currency, with the help of which legislative restrictions are bypassed. In particular, opportunities are being sought to ignore, or at least circumvent, labor legislation that establishes minimum wage rates, maximum overtime, conditions for the use of labor by adolescents, pensioners, women, and foreign workers.

Significant scale of the public sector in the economy. The significant scale of the public sector in the economy gives rise to relations related to the distribution of budgetary resources in the form of both direct and indirect subsidies, subsidies, soft loans among state-owned enterprises. This is the nutritional basis for the formation of a sector of informal, and often criminal relations associated with the distribution of resources. On the basis of gratuitous or preferential distribution of budgetary resources, controlled business structures are formed, created with the aim of misappropriating these resources, scrolling them (appropriating inflationary income), legalizing, investing, and transferring them abroad. Thus, the effectiveness of the state is the most important factor determining the scale of the shadow economy.

Economic instability, crisis state of the economy. The departure of the economy into the "shadow" is a consequence of the general state of the economy. With the official economy in a sorry state, working in its informal sector can have many benefits.

On the other hand, the crisis state of the economy is forcing entrepreneurs to look for more attractive niches for their activities. One of them is the shadow sector.

Insecurity of property rights gives entrepreneurs the psychology of a temporary worker. Appropriate economic behavior proceeds from the fact that if property rights can be violated sooner or later and existing legislation and law enforcement practice by no means guarantee their reliable protection, it is necessary to use the available opportunities to the maximum. If you can avoid paying taxes, maximize your profits by all means, then this should be done.

Unfavorable social background. Growing unemployment, the flow of refugees, non-payment of wages, etc. are an excellent "nutrient environment" for the shadow economy. People who have lost their jobs or have not received wages for many months agree to all the conditions of illegal, shadow employment: relations with the employer are sometimes based only on a verbal agreement, no sick leave or vacation pay is paid, dismissal is possible without any social guarantees, and even more so without warning and etc.

For employers, such relationships are more than beneficial: employees are very interested in keeping the "owner's" shadow business as such; employers have uncontrolled power over employees; direct financial benefits already consist in the fact that no taxes on the wage fund need to be paid, etc.

political instability. This factor, just like the "insecurity of property rights," stimulates and develops the psychology of a temporary worker. Since it is not known what will happen tomorrow, all means are good for increasing capital.

It is important to note that if during periods of political instability the shadow economy develops very dynamically, then the official one, on the contrary, freezes. Moreover, its volume is decreasing not only due to “shadowing”, but also due to the elementary curtailment of activities “until better times”.

Depending on the development of market relations, the state of the economy as a whole, there will be more or less reasons for the existence of the shadow economy, the degree of influence of different of them will vary. Also, the development of the shadow economy is influenced by economic freedom, bordering on permissiveness, the deformation of moral and ethical requirements.

Economic security. The most important factor. The shadow economy, which has penetrated into all the pores of the economic organism, intensively decomposes and undermines it. From this, the economy becomes loose and unsafe. This leads to the next factor.

National security. With weak economic security, there can be no strong national security.

Methods for statistical assessment of the shadow economy

One of the most difficult problems in the study of the shadow economy is the development of a methodological apparatus for assessing its main quantitative parameters, which is due to the very nature of this phenomenon, which implies concealment from accounting, control and registration.

The versatility of the shadow economy also implies a variety of methods for measuring it. The very diversity of methods used in world practice indicates the lack of unified methodology quantitative assessment of the size of shadow economic structures and criteria for the reliability of the results.

AT last years Many scientists have attempted to systematize methods for measuring the shadow economy. However, to date, a clear system of features that allow classifying methods for assessing the shadow economy has not been developed. But at the same time, the vast majority of researchers divide all methods of measuring the shadow economy into direct and indirect.

Direct methods are methods based on information obtained from special surveys or observations of participants in the shadow economy (at least on consumer rights).

Indirect methods are methods based on the analysis of available summary economic indicators official statistics, financial authorities, tax services.

Thus, this classification of methods for measuring the shadow economy is based on the type of source for obtaining the necessary information.

Some scientists associate direct methods with micromethods and indirect methods with macromethods. Comparing different approaches to methods for determining the component of the shadow economy, we can propose the following classification of methods for assessing the shadow economy (Fig. 2), in which the same methods can be included in one or another classification group, depending on the need for their application.

When assessing the scale of the unregistered economy, the tasks facing statisticians differ from those of representatives of tax and law enforcement agencies. The task of the latter is to estimate the volume of state revenues lost in the form of taxes and try to return them. Statisticians estimate the size of the unrecorded economy in order to eventually adjust macroeconomic indicators and minimize errors in their calculation. In the absence of the necessary statistical information, it is preferable to make an assessment based on certain assumptions than to ignore the existence of shadow economic activity in a particular sector of the economy altogether.

It should be noted that there are no ideal methods for calculating the shadow economy. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The shadow economy (also hidden economy, informal economy) is an economic activity hidden from society and the state, which is outside state control and accounting. It is an unobservable, informal part of the economy, but does not cover it all, since it cannot include activities that are not specifically hidden from society and the state, for example, the home or community economy. Also includes, but is not limited to illegal, criminal economics.

The term "shadow economy" (English shadow economy, underground economy, black economy) appeared in the early 1970s. to denote the concealment of income and anti-social ways to extract them. In the domestic scientific literature, the use of the term is associated with an attempt to analyze the surge in “shadow” economic activity after the introduction of the Criminal Code of the USSR in 1961.

By the mid 1980s. in domestic science and economic practice, interest in the problem of the shadow economy has increased significantly. This was due to reasons related to the growth of the informal economy, criminalization and the growing role of the shadow economy in national economy. The scale of illegal services became significant, their underestimation sharply reduced the reliability of their actual and forecast estimates of the population's need for services. The works of A. Gurov, T. Koryagina, A. Krylov, O. Osipenko, M. Shabanova, V. Rutgaiser, V. Sillaste and others are devoted to the study of these problems. However, criminal tendencies prevailed in the interpretation of the shadow economy; was not considered.

The reasons for the emergence and development of the shadow economy are very diverse. Among the most important such reasons, some researchers usually single out the imperfection of human nature, which is characterized by its original duality and inconsistency. From their point of view, God and the devil, the spirit of creation and destruction, the desire for integration and isolation, altruism and egoism, etc. coexist in every person at the same time. Hence, any subject, being part of an integral social organism, at the same time tries in one way or another to oppose society, and in many cases such attempts lead to participation in shadow economic activity.

Another important reason for the emergence and development of the shadow economy should be considered private property and especially its market-oriented forms. As is known, this property creates the basis for the individualization of the reproductive and economic process, as a result of which each private entity is interested in the full preservation and enhancement of relatively separate objects of its property. At the same time, other entities that compete with it in the market, as well as the state that restricts it with laws and levies taxes on it, are often perceived as some kind of hostile force. It is in order to protect against such force that various shadow mechanisms and schemes are “turned on” (illegal business, tax evasion, unfair competition, etc.).

Among the reasons contributing to the emergence and spread of shadow economic activity, it is not without reason that economic crises are singled out, usually accompanied by a decline in production, inflation and rising prices, a fall in real incomes, an increase in unemployment, etc. Under these conditions, the shadow economy, ensuring the production and sale of certain goods, while maintaining employment and income for a significant part of the population, becomes a kind of "compensating-anti-crisis" factor.

As you know, economic crises are in many ways a direct result of the low efficiency of public administration, which can also be considered one of the main "stimulators" of shadow economic behavior. Imperfect systems of taxation, customs and currency control, licensing and certification, flaws in budgetary regulation, weakness of anti-inflationary and antitrust policy- all this to a large extent "unties the hands" of numerous representatives of the shadow economy.

The shadow economy is certainly stimulated by transformational factors associated with a change in the type of the economic system of society. As mentioned above, the transition from an administrative-command economy to a market economy, for example, in our country led to the fact that at a certain stage the old system no longer worked, and the new one had not yet started working. The consequence of this was a decrease in the effectiveness of legal mechanisms economic regulation which was immediately used by shadow actors.

Another important reason for the emergence and development of the shadow economy is the discrepancy between the current legislation, official legal regulations some needs and interests that really exist in society, as a result of which the latter begin to be realized in an illegal, shady way.

The invigorating soil for the development of the shadow economy is also the constant deepening of scientific and technological progress, which is expressed in the improvement of productive forces, in the deepening of the social division of labor, in an increase in the degree of economic integration, etc.

Summing up the above material, it can be argued that the causes of the emergence of the shadow economy are very diverse and different for all regions of the world, however, the main causes of the emergence and development of the shadow economy can be grouped into the following areas: anthropological, economic, social, legal, sociocultural, political

The following factors contribute to the development of the shadow economy:

1) economic:

a) high taxes (on profits, income tax, etc.);

b) the crisis of the financial system and the impact of its negative consequences on the economy as a whole;

c) activities of unregistered economic structures;

2) social:

a) low standard of living of the population, which contributes to the development of hidden types of economic activity;

b) a high level of unemployment and the orientation of part of the population to earn income in any way;

c) uneven distribution of the gross domestic product;

3) legal:

a) imperfection of the legislation;

b) insufficient activity of law enforcement structures to suppress illegal and criminal economic activities;

c) the imperfection of the coordination mechanism for combating economic crime.

The shadow economy exists in all countries of the world, only its volumes, forms and control differ. In highly developed countries, according to various estimates, it is 17% of GDP, in countries with economies in transition - more than 20% and in developing countries - more than 40%.

The shadow economy is closely intertwined with the legal and real sectors of the economy and is an integral part of it. In its activities, it also uses the services of the state, its material and social factors, labor force, etc., without entering into economic relations with the state as a business entity.

Figure 1.1 shows the structure of the shadow economy.

Figure 1.1 -- Structure of the shadow economy

Note -- Source:

The shadow economy includes the following segments:

The informal economy (“grey market”) is, in principle, legitimate economic transactions, the scale of which is hidden or underestimated by business entities, such as employment without registration, unregistered repair and construction work, tutoring, renting real estate and other methods of evading taxes.

The criminal economy (“black market”) is an economic activity prohibited by law in any economic system and in the vast majority of countries: drug trafficking, smuggling, prostitution, racketeering, etc.

Fictitious economy - the provision of bribes, individual benefits and subsidies based on organized corrupt ties.

In the process of development of the shadow economy, a number of qualitative signs are formed that testify to its existence. These signs are inherent in almost all countries that have experienced or are experiencing a deep economic crisis, however, they have their own characteristics in each country, and the shadow economy differs both in the scale of distribution and in the forms of manifestation.

The shadow economy has two main interrelated features:

Illegal activity in order to obtain uncontrolled income solely in their own interests;

Receipt of income that is wholly or partially removed from fiscal control in order to obtain additional economic benefits.

There is the following classification of the shadow economy according to the degree of legality of business transactions:

Legal (informal) economy (informal, legal, rule-of law economy) is an economic activity that does not violate either the current legislative norms or the rights of other economic agents, but is not recorded in reports and contracts. A striking example is the subsistence production of households.

Extra-legal economy (out-of-law economy) -- economic activity that violates the rights of other economic agents, but is not regulated by the current legislation and is, therefore, in extra-legal zones. These are the so-called "pink markets" (rosy markets). For example, the violation of environmental safety, lobbying in favor of individual economic entities, the provision of individual benefits and subsidies as an "exception", etc.

A semi-legal economy is an economic activity that, according to its goals, corresponds to the law, but periodically goes beyond its limits. These are gray markets. First of all, they are characterized by various methods of tax evasion, including the use of barter exchanges, work without a patent and license, employment without registration.

Illegal, criminal economy (non-legal, criminal economy) -- economic activities that are prohibited by law and inherently violate the law. These are the "black markets" (black markets). Examples: drug trafficking, illegal arms production and trade, large-scale smuggling, prostitution, human trafficking, racketeering and the use of force. The first and second segments of the shadow economy are in the "light", while the third and fourth are in the "shadow".

Typology of the varieties of the shadow economy according to three criteria - their connection with the "white" ("first", official) economy, as well as subjects and objects of economic activity - identifies the following sectors of the shadow economy:

- "second" ("white-collar");

- "gray" ("informal");

- "black" ("underground") shadow economy.

Table 1.1 presents the criteria for typology of the shadow economy.

Table 1.1

Criteria for typology of the shadow economy

The reasons for the emergence of the shadow economy are different for all regions of the world, however, the complex of reasons for the existence of the shadow business in the market will be more diverse, especially if we keep in mind not the most established sectors of the market economy.

The main reasons for the departure of small businesses in the "shadow economy" are:

1. Hard tax pressure;
2. Possibility of alternative settlements (cash, barter, etc.);
3. Administrative nature of rental relations (underdevelopment of the real estate market);
4. Administrative and bureaucratic barriers in registration, obtaining licenses, and so on.

According to some estimates, the shadow economy in small business covers from 30 to 40% of the volume of products, services (turnover). In our country, most of the population belongs to the category of "poor", the proportion of the unemployed and fictitiously employed is high, the presence of a "social bottom" among people released from prisons, beggars, homeless people, street children and adolescents, the number of refugees from the "hot spots" of the former USSR, the proportion of unsettled professionals demobilized from the army and all power structures is increasing. Due to non-payment of wages and pensions, a giant layer of "new poor" has formed.

Some other reasons for the emergence of the shadow economy: the emergence of business collusion between officials and entrepreneurs: a businessman privately hires employees of the civil service and law enforcement agencies, acting as if the state does not exist. The payment of taxes is considered as double taxation, since everyone buys public services privately and in the specific amount that is required by this or that entrepreneur or other private person. A socio-psychological atmosphere has been formed in society, when tax evasion is a norm, the observance of which is not condemned.

Another source of shadow relations is licensing. different types economic activity, which gives the authorities and individual officials great opportunities to extract shadow income.

Many Western experts consider tax pressure to be the main, if not the only reason for the development of the "shadow" economy. This is not the only factor, but it is very significant. From this we can formulate the conclusion: the prevalence of "shadow" activity depends to a decisive extent on the general state of the economy, the standard of living of the population, and the restrictions emanating from the state.

In order to understand the reasons for the emergence of the shadow economy, it is necessary to analyze the economic benefits that a firm or entrepreneur who decides to leave the shadow and legally do business, and vice versa, will receive. Some economists believe that high taxes are not the main reason for going into the shadows.

High level of taxation. This factor is recognized as one of the most significant, stimulating the growth and activation of the shadow economy. It has its effect in countries with any type of market economy. However, its operation in each country has its own characteristics. For example, in the United States, high income tax rates have a special impact on the development of the shadow sector. In Russia, the spread of the practice of concealing income is facilitated by high rates of contributions to social insurance funds and high rates of value added tax.

Officially, the share of all tax revenues in Russia in the post-reform period was at the level of 33% of GDP. It was almost the same as in the USA, but much less compared, for example, with the Scandinavian countries (in Sweden at that time - 61%). In Europe, the tax burden is now constantly growing: deductions from wages, which in the early 70s were 27%, today have overcome the mark of 42% in Europe. Greece, Italy, Belgium and Sweden have the highest taxes in Europe (72-78%). These countries also have the most developed shadow sector. At the same time, developed countries with the lowest level of tax burden - the United States and Switzerland (41.4% and 39.7%, respectively) - have a relatively small shadow sector.

Over-regulation of the economy. This factor is manifested mainly in the following actions of the state: a ban on the circulation of any goods or services; administrative intervention in the pricing process; excessive power of the bureaucracy, weak controllability of bureaucratic decisions. The result of this is the growth of the shadow economy. This is manifested in the formation of various types of illegal markets - labor, commodity, financial, currency, with the help of which legislative restrictions are bypassed. In particular, opportunities are being sought to ignore, or at least circumvent, labor legislation that establishes minimum wage rates, maximum overtime, conditions for the use of labor by adolescents, pensioners, women, and foreign workers.

Significant scale of the public sector in the economy. The significant scale of the public sector in the economy gives rise to relations related to the distribution of budgetary resources in the form of both direct and indirect subsidies, subsidies, soft loans among state-owned enterprises. The effectiveness of the state is the most important factor determining the scale of the shadow economy.

Economic instability, crisis state of the economy. The departure of the economy into the "shadow" is a consequence of the general state of the economy. With the official economy in a sorry state, working in its informal sector can have many benefits. On the other hand, the crisis state of the economy is forcing entrepreneurs to look for more attractive niches for their activities. One of them is the shadow sector.

The insecurity of property rights gives rise to the so-called "psychology of a temporary worker" among entrepreneurs. Appropriate economic behavior proceeds from the fact that if property rights can be violated sooner or later and existing legislation and law enforcement practice do not guarantee reliable protection, it is necessary to use the available opportunities to the maximum. If you can avoid paying taxes, maximize your profits by all means, then this should be done.

Unfavorable social background. Growing unemployment, the flow of refugees, non-payment of wages and the like are an excellent "nutrient environment" for the shadow economy. People who have lost their jobs or have not received wages for many months agree to all the conditions of illegal, shadow employment: relations with the employer are sometimes based only on a verbal agreement, no sick leave or vacation pay is paid, dismissal is possible without any social guarantees, and even more so without warning and etc. For employers, such relationships are more than beneficial: employees are very interested in keeping the "owner's" shadow business as such; employers have uncontrolled power over employees; direct financial benefits already consist in the fact that no taxes on the wage fund need to be paid.

Political instability . This factor, as well as the "insecurity of property rights", stimulates and develops the psychology of a temporary worker. Since it is not known what will happen tomorrow, all means are good for increasing capital. It is important to note that if during periods of political instability the shadow economy develops very dynamically, then the official one, on the contrary, freezes.

Economic security. This factor is the most significant. The shadow economy, which has penetrated all aspects of the economic apparatus, is actively undermining it. This makes the economy unsafe. And as a consequence, the following follows from this factor.

National security . With weak economic security, there can be no strong national security. The objective reason for the rapid growth of the shadow economy is the transition from a bureaucratic, command management system to a market one.

On a global scale, the share of the shadow economy is estimated at 5-10% of the gross domestic product. Thus, in African countries this figure reaches 30%, in the Czech Republic - 18%, and in Ukraine - 50%; the share of the shadow economy in the economic turnover of Russia is 40%.

Evasion of official registration of commercial contracts or deliberate distortion of their content during registration can be considered a key sign of shadow activity. At the same time, cash and especially foreign currency become the main means of payment.

The concept of "shadow economy" as a multifaceted, complex and capacious phenomenon includes:

fixed assets (movable and real estate, resources and funds

production);

financial resources and securities (shares, bills, electronic cards, privatization certificates, compensations, etc.);

personal capital of shadow economy structures (houses, land, cars, yachts, dachas, airplanes, etc.);

demographic resources (persons who are involved in shadow economic activity).

The shadow sector uses the following mechanisms in its activities:

1. Concealment of part of the proceeds of the turnover of financial and economic activities. The goal is to reduce the taxable base, which leads to a decrease in tax payments. The concealment mechanism is double bookkeeping (official and unofficial) and one-day firms.
2. Creation of a shadow stock of working capital. Managers and employees of large manufacturing enterprises produce it at the expense of "savings" in order to obtain additional personal cash income. Includes several stages:

A shadow stock is created by increasing the cost rate for the manufacture of a product or writing off parts and equipment suitable for further operation;

There is a firm that, according to fictitious documents, writes off the delivery of "savings", but already in material terms;

There is a payment for the delivery and "posting" of raw materials or products already in the enterprise;

The supplier company cashes out the payment and shares it with partners - employees of the enterprise (makes a "rollback").

3. Shadow cashing out. In order to conduct shadow payments, the enterprise needs informal funds. The established sector of the shadow economy for the transformation of official money into unofficial - "cashing" - does this as follows:

The enterprise makes an advance payment for products or services;

The "cash-out" company issues cash and fictitious documents for goods or services for which an advance payment has been received (the goods are not shipped);

The enterprise receives the "received" goods and writes off the products for production and economic activities.

An enterprise can go directly to a company engaged in cashing out, and then pay up to 2% for the service (in 2007 there was an upward trend). With this scheme, the risk of detecting shadow operations increases, since the enterprise is in contact with a one-day firm and its employees. Also, an enterprise can find an intermediary firm that takes on direct contact with the firm for "cashing out" when working with documents and shadow cash. In this case, the percentage for the service is up to 10%.

4. Shadow activity during tenders and competitions introduced into the financial and economic activities of state institutions or large joint-stock companies in order to combat corruption. When several firms participate in procurement, a fair and objective selection of bids is guaranteed. In practice, this mechanism does not always work: officials and business owners have found loopholes here that allow them to take into account their material interest:

A state organization (joint stock company) issues a task (order) for a tender with conditions that only one firm can fulfill, or favorite firms participate in the tender according to pre-agreed conditions;

The firm-favorite "wins" the tender, and the "kickback" is paid to officials.

So, businesses that want to bypass legitimate ways to make a profit, and instead of paying taxes and living honestly, find many loopholes and ways. Such firms use a number of shadow sector mechanisms to avoid punishment.