Horodnic, I.A., Williams, C.C. orcid.org/0000-0002-3610-1933, Ianole-Cãlin, R. et al. (1 more author) (2022) Exploring the illegal practice of under-reporting wages in the construction industry: some lessons from Romania. Applied Economics, 55 (26). pp. 2978-2992. ISSN 0003-6846
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the practice of under-reporting wages (and its multifarious forms) in the construction industry, which is a dominant type of undeclared work found in the industry, and how it can be explained and tackled. To do so, a mixed-methods approach is used, including in-depth interviews, focus groups and a representative national survey comprising 1,212 respondents collected during April–May 2021 in Romania, a country with one of the highest shares of undeclared work in the European Union. A logistic regression analysis shows that this practice is not confined to vulnerable groups but is rather an extensive phenomenon. Evaluating how wage under-reporting could be tackled, the finding is that there is no significant relationship between how employees perceive the level of sanction and the risk of detection and their likelihood of participating in wage under-reporting. However, the results reveal the significance of social norms; those who have acquaintances who receive under-reported wages are more likely to engage themselves in this wage arrangement. The implications for theory and practice are then considered.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Applied Economics. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Informal economy; under-reported wages; under-reported employment; undeclared work; construction industry |
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: | 21 Sep 2022 11:15 |
Last Modified: | 17 Jul 2024 10:10 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/00036846.2022.2107990 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:191123 |