Williams, C. orcid.org/0000-0002-3610-1933 and Kosta, B. (2020) Explaining the cash-in-hand consumer culture in the European home repairs and renovations sector. Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, 25 (3). pp. 387-405. ISSN 1366-4387
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain who purchases undeclared home repairs and renovations and their motives to tackle the cash-in-hand consumer culture. The conventional view has been that undeclared home repairs and renovations are sought by those consumers needing to save money and desiring a lower price. Here, this is evaluated critically.
Design/methodology/approach To do so, evidence from a 2019 Eurobarometer survey involving 27,565 face-to-face interviews in 28 European countries is reported.
Findings The finding is the need for a nuanced and variegated understanding of who purchases undeclared home repairs and renovations and why. Lower price is their sole rationale in just 25% of purchases, one of several rationales in 34% of cases and not a reason in the remaining 42% of purchases. Besides a lower price, consumers purchase undeclared not only unintentionally but also to circumvent the failings of formal sector provision in terms of its availability, speed and quality, as well as for social and redistributive rationales.
Practical implications To reduce the cash-in-hand consumer culture, not only are incentives needed to persuade consumers to purchase declared along with awareness-raising campaigns about the benefits of purchasing declared services but initiatives are also needed to improve the availability, speed, reliability and quality of formal provision and to address undeclared purchases conducted for social and redistributive purposes.
Originality/value This paper improves understanding of how governments can stop consumers asking “how much for cash” and reduce demand for undeclared home repair and renovation services.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction. This version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. |
Keywords: | informal economy; consumer behaviour; tax evasion; construction sector; Europe; Labour economics; Tax revenue; Tax evasion |
Dates: |
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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: | 05 Jun 2020 13:41 |
Last Modified: | 19 Jan 2022 11:42 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Emerald |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1108/JFMPC-03-2020-0011 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:161445 |