Informality versus shadow economy: reflecting on the first results of a manager's survey in Kyrgyzstan

Fuente: Zenodo
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Polese, Abel
Format: Recurso digital
Published: Zenodo 2025
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866902251853840384
author Polese, Abel
author_facet Polese, Abel
contents <p>This article is the rst attempt to apply Putnis and Sauka’s approach to direct measurement of the shadow economy through a survey of company managers in Central Asia. The results of the survey are used to calculate a shadow economy index for 2017 and 2018 in Kyrgyzstan, and to discuss the di erence between direct and indirect methods in calculating the size of a shadow economy. We also propose a distinction between shadow economies and informality in general. While a shadow economy is usually understood to arise as a consequence of underreporting of income, we argue that informality is best understood as the aggregate of non-monetary and non-economic practices used in society. Applying this distinction to our case, we suggest that the origins of Kyrgyzstan’s shadow economy are not only economic; rather social and cultural processes have had signi cant e ects. This has implications for policy responses that address shadow economic activities.</p>
format Recurso digital
id zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_16575216
institution Zenodo
language
publishDate 2025
publisher Zenodo
record_format zenodo
spellingShingle Informality versus shadow economy: reflecting on the first results of a manager's survey in Kyrgyzstan
Polese, Abel
<p>This article is the rst attempt to apply Putnis and Sauka’s approach to direct measurement of the shadow economy through a survey of company managers in Central Asia. The results of the survey are used to calculate a shadow economy index for 2017 and 2018 in Kyrgyzstan, and to discuss the di erence between direct and indirect methods in calculating the size of a shadow economy. We also propose a distinction between shadow economies and informality in general. While a shadow economy is usually understood to arise as a consequence of underreporting of income, we argue that informality is best understood as the aggregate of non-monetary and non-economic practices used in society. Applying this distinction to our case, we suggest that the origins of Kyrgyzstan’s shadow economy are not only economic; rather social and cultural processes have had signi cant e ects. This has implications for policy responses that address shadow economic activities.</p>
title Informality versus shadow economy: reflecting on the first results of a manager's survey in Kyrgyzstan
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16575216