Scope

There have been great developments in the measuring of the reach and scope of the shadow economy in the past few years, thanks to improvements in tools and methods. However, measuring the scope of the shadow economy and its harm on society is still challenging, as a large part of the shadow economy is “hidden crime” not reported to the authorities. This website highlights mainly Finnish research into the matter, but a number of interesting international publications can also be found in the mix.

Definitions of grey economy and economic crime

This page has examples from the purview of authorities that are used to illustrate the terms ‘grey economy’ and ‘economic crime’.

Studies on the shadow economy

This page has the latest reports and reviews on the phenomena of the shadow economy, for example, reports per sector and reports on the state of legislation.

Quantifying the shadow economy

This page has reports and surveys carried out with different methods in order to quantify the shadow economy.

Estimates on the shadow economy and tax gap

This page has summarised information about Finnish and international studies on the shadow economy and the resulting tax gap.

Page last updated 10/9/2023