Transcript The Informal Economy

Measuring the Informal Economy
OECD Working Party on National Accounts
Paris, October 2011
Contact: [email protected]
The Informal Economy
• Frequently asked questions to OECD NA
– How do countries estimate the size of
the informal economy? How big is it?
– For which we generally have little detailed
information.
• Increasingly the question is being posed
by policy makers.
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The Informal Economy – WP1
• March 2011 WP1 meeting called for a
study to be undertaken by STD to respond
to needs in a number of policy areas:
– Social protection and insurance
– Growth and productivity
– Tax revenues (erosion)
– Trust and Integrity in public institutions
– GDP comparability
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CSTAT 2011
• Delegates were asked to support the
development of a survey of national
practices based on the Eurostat Tabular
approach for production.
– With Sectors also broken down by size classes
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The Survey
• Some countries have responded saying
that they do not produce explicit estimates
of the NOE.
• The purpose of the survey is to attempt to
get some measure of these implicit
adjustments.
• The focus for WP1 will be on Types N1 and
N6 – which correspond to underground
production
– (typically tax-evasive but also ‘regulatoryStatistics Directorate
evasive’)
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STD/CSTAT(2011)4
N1 to N7 explained
All economic activities of all
producers
In scope of enterprise survey
or administrative collection?
Producers not in scope for enterprise
survey or administrative collection
Producers in scope for enterprise survey
or administrative collection
Administratively registered?
Producers not in
administrative register
Obligation to register?
Producer should
have registered
(underground
producer) N1
Producer not
obliged to
register N3
Illegal
producer
N2
Problems due to non-response?
Producers in
administrative register
Legal person?
Misreporting?
Misreporting by
producer N6
Registered legal
person not
included in
statistics N4
Non-response
incorrectly handled
N7b
Response or non-response
correctly handled
Registered
entrepreneur not
included in
statistics N5
Producer reports
correctly
All data asked?
All required
data are asked
2
Not all required
data are asked N7a
The Survey
• Goes further than the conventional Tabular
approach, in that it also asks for size-class
breakdowns.
• Understanding the nature of sectors,
particularly those that have high proportions
of micro-enterprises are particularly
important.
– Important to note that the size-class breakdown
in the survey is suggestive. Countries are
encouraged to provide whatever breakdowns
possible.
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