Williams, C.C. orcid.org/0000-0002-3610-1933 and Yang, J. (2018) Evaluating competing perspectives towards undeclared work: some lessons from Bulgaria. Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 26 (2-3). pp. 247-265. ISSN 2573-9638
Abstract
When explaining and tackling the undeclared economy in Central and Eastern Europe, participants have been conventionally viewed as rational economic actors. They engage in undeclared work when the benefits outweigh the costs. Participation is thus deterred by increasing the sanctions and/or probability of being caught. Recently, however, an alternative social actor approach has emerged which views participants as engaging in undeclared work when their norms, values and beliefs (i.e., citizen morale) do not align with the laws and regulations (i.e., state morale). Here, therefore, initiatives to develop greater symmetry between civic and state morale are pursued. To evaluate the validity and effectiveness of these competing explanations and policy approaches, 2,004 face-to-face interviews conducted in Bulgaria in late 2015 are reported. Logit marginal effects regression analysis reveals no association between participation in undeclared work and the perceived level of penalties and risk of detection, but a strong significant association with the level of asymmetry between citizen and state morale; the greater the asymmetry, the higher is the likelihood of participation in undeclared work. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for explaining and tackling undeclared work.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | informal sector; tax morale; tax evasion; institutional theory; Bulgaria |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 15 Mar 2018 14:25 |
Last Modified: | 11 Nov 2020 08:19 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/25739638.2018.1511112 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:128559 |