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Purpose: The present research aims at identifying the latent factors that are driving the rise of the shadow economy in Palestine, assesses its magnitude from 1998 to 2021 and investigates the influence that its size has on the financial sustainability of Palestine's public budget. Design/methodology/approach: The researchers employed the multi-indicator multi-causes (MIMIC) model to estimate the size of the shadow economy and investigate its effect on the financial sustainability of the public budget. Economic factors such as direct taxes, indirect taxes, government welfare, government spending and unemployment were considered causal variables, while indicators of financial sustainability included budget deficit, public debt and gross domestic product (GDP). The shadow economy served as an intermediary variable. Findings: Based on the findings, the researchers recommend regulating and formalizing legitimate activities within the shadow economy. Additionally, they suggest promoting investment projects to reduce unemployment rates, lowering taxes on essential goods and consumer items and providing support to local producers in Palestine. These measures aim at addressing the challenges posed by the shadow economy and fostering economic stability. Originality/value: The study reveals that the average size of the shadow economy in Palestine between 1998 and 2021 was 43.80%, fluctuating within the range of 39.92%–46.30%. It further establishes that an increase in direct and indirect taxes as well as unemployment contributes to the expansion of the shadow economy. Conversely, government welfare and spending exert a diminishing effect. Moreover, the study finds that the rise of the shadow economy correlates with an increase in public debt, budget deficit and GDP, indicating a negative impact on the financial sustainability of the public budget. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The impacts of institutional quality on entrepreneurship are well established. However, the effects of an external factor, such as the shadow economy, that moderates this relationship have largely been neglected in existing literature. As such, this paper investigates how the shadow economy moderates the effects of institutional quality on entrepreneurship in a global sample of 79 economies from 2006 to 2018, when the latest required data are available. Design/methodology/approach: This paper utilizes the fixed-effect and generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation techniques. Various scenarios have been considered for the robustness of the analysis, including different estimation techniques, different estimates of the shadow economy and various subsamples of countries with different income levels. Findings: Empirical findings indicate that improved institutional quality boosts entrepreneurship activities, while the extended shadow economy is associated with reduced entrepreneurship activities. Interestingly, the positive impacts of institutional quality on entrepreneurship will be lessened with a larger shadow economy. These findings have remained largely unchanged across samples of countries and different proxies and estimation techniques. Practical implications: Findings from this paper offer policymakers the relationships between institutional quality, shadow economy and entrepreneurship and the moderating effects of shadow economy on the institutional quality–entrepreneurship nexus. The implication is that institutional quality should be strengthened while the shadow economy should be controlled to promote entrepreneurship initiatives. Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first empirical study to explore the moderating effects of the shadow economy on the institutional quality–entrepreneurship nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to identify the factors which influence the change in the volume of shadow economy in the countries of Europe to explain its growth or reduction through the change in the identified factors. This would help to determine which factors are worth impacting to reduce the volume of shadow economy in the countries of Europe. Design/methodology/approach: This work sets out an econometric analysis. For the purpose of making research calculations, MS Excel software package has been chosen. It has been decided to use linear multiple regression and several auxiliary tools allowing research accuracy to be increased. Findings: Final model has shown that the levels of corruption and inflation have a positive effect on the volume of shadow economy. Also, with the low level of significance it has been proved that foreign direct investments have a negative impact on the volume of shadow economy. From the hypotheses, it has also been ascertained that the rule of law and gross domestic product influence the volume of shadow economy negatively. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that the magnitude of shadow economy can be controlled by increasing the efficiency of the rule of law and the economy's growth. Research limitations/implications: Because of the limited data on such an indicator as the shadow economy, in this work, this study used data for only one year – 2015, which may reduce the objectivity and reliability of the results obtained. But because of the fact that 38 European countries were taken and, as a result, the selection was larger, objectivity is preserved. As a result, three hypotheses were confirmed. Practical implications: From the point of view of practical implications, this study should help determine the number of parameters, which affect the volume of the shadow economy in a particular country in Europe. Understanding of such correlations will help to regulate the volume of the shadow economy, which will mostly affect the overall development of the country. Social implications: From a point of view of social implications, this study will help to solve some problems in Europe countries. Because this study is focused on finding parameters that affect the shadow economy, it is possible to reduce the volume of shadow economy. This changes can lead to a number of social improvements, such as a reduction of crime, a reduction of poverty, a reduction of unemployment, an increase of revenues to the country's treasury and a general increase of living standards. Originality/value: Within the framework of this work, unique empirical research has been undertaken. This work helps to establish the factors which are the most influential in respect of the volume of shadow economy and which graphically indicate the following: what precisely needs to be prioritized to overcome one of the crucial socioeconomic problems for the majority of European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the nonlinear threshold effect of shadow economy on sustainable development in Africa while providing additional evidence on how this nonlinear threshold effect play out in economies with high and low developed financial/credit markets. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses 37 African economies between 2009 and 2017 in a dynamic GMM panel model that controls for country, year and technological effects to ensure consistency and reliability of results and findings. Findings: The results reveal that there is an inverted nonlinear U-shape nexus between the size of shadow economy and sustainable development in both short run and long run in Africa and across economies with high and low developed credit/financial market. Also, the threshold points beyond which the size of shadow economies dampens sustainable development is lower for economies with high financial/credit market development and higher in the long run. Practical implications: These results have policy implications and recommendations and suggest that shadow economies can be beneficial to sustainable development particularly when the size of shadow economies are restrained from increasing beyond certain thresholds/levels. Moreso, to restrict the adverse effect of shadow economies on sustainable development, policymakers can rely on developing their financial/credit markets to tame the destructive nature of shadow economies on sustainable development. These results are robust to technological, year/time and country effects. Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this study examines for the first in the context of Africa, the nonlinear effect of shadow economies on sustainable development under low and high developed financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this examine the impact of income inequality and shadow economy on environmental degradation given the growing income inequality, shadow economy and ecological degradation in developing countries. Thus, this study is motivated to offer empirical insight into how income inequality and shadow economy influence the environment in African countries. Design/methodology/approach: Data from 29 countries in Africa between 2000 and 2017 were used, while the novel method of moments quantile regression of Machado and Silva (2019) and Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) (2012) granger causality is used as the estimation techniques. Findings: The results established the presence of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in the panel, while Westerlund panel cointegration confirmed the long-run cointegration among the variables. The results from the quantile regression suggest that income inequality increases environmental degradation from the 5th to the 30th quantiles, while from the 70th quantiles, income inequality reduces ecological degradation. The shadow economy negatively influences environmental degradation across the quantiles, strengthening environmental quality. Per capita income (economic growth) and financial development positively impact environmental degradation throughout the quantiles. However, urbanization reduces environmental degradation from 60th to 95th quantiles. The D-H causality established a two-way relationship between income inequality and environmental degradation, while one-way from shadow economy, per capita income and urbanization to environmental degradation were established. Originality/value: This study provides fresh insights into the nexus between shadow economy and environmental quality in the presence of higher levels of income inequality for the case of African region. The study applies quantile analysis via moment proposed by Machado and Silva (2019). This technique shows that the impact of income inequality and shadow economy on environmental degradation is heterogeneous across the quantiles of ecological footprints in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to analyze the notion of "financial intelligence (monitoring)" in the system of combating money laundering and compare foreign financial intelligence units. Money laundering poses a systemic risk to the financial and economic spheres, as well as to the national security of all countries. Financial monitoring should be pointed out while analyzing the issue of overcoming and preventing money laundering. It serves as one of the most sovereign remedies in the system of counteracting money laundering to minimize and effectively combat organized criminality and money laundering. The high level of development of the shadow economy, corruption, ineffectiveness of regulatory and legal support, as well as duplication of functions of individual authorities have become prerequisites for the financial monitoring system formation. Design/methodology/approach: The theoretical and legal principles of financial monitoring in the system of counteraction to money laundering using the system-structural method were analyzed. The application of this method allowed to systematize the basic provisions on financial monitoring and the principles of its implementation. The system-structural method was used combining with the method of terminological analysis and operationalization of concepts. This method was used to identify key problematic aspects of understanding the financial monitoring essence, the peculiarities of the scientific community views on the definition of "financial intelligence," "financial intelligence unit." The method of analysis and synthesis in their systemic combination, as well as the ascent from the abstract to the concrete, was directly used to determine the impact of money laundering on the financial and economic security of Ukraine in the context of globalization. The extrapolation method was used to determine the possibility of implementing the analyzed existing world experience in the domestic practice of financial monitoring as an effective way to combat money laundering. The method of creating a theory was used to generalize the results of the research, to find general patterns for the objects being studied. The comparative method was used for comprehensive comparative research. Findings: The development of money laundering and terrorist financing is one of the main challenges facing each state in the context of financial globalization. This is because the owners of untaxed income are trying to give them a lawful origin. The so-termed "criminal proceeds" pose a threat not only to the economy of any state but also to the national system. In turn, the low level of the financial system controlling instrument is conducive to the accelerated criminally obtained income transfer, which leads to the development of the shadow economy. Originality/value: The authors recognized the most appropriate interpretation of the term "money laundering." This is the process of transforming illegally obtained income into legal, ie legal income. The purpose of such a transformation is to conceal the original source of "criminal proceeds" and eliminate their traces. However, it should also be emphasized that the term "money laundering" also applies to such financial transactions that form a certain asset as a result of "criminal acts" (in particular, corruption). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The study aims at estimating the shadow economy (SE) using the method of demand for currency in Palestine for the period 2008–2018 by studying the relationship between a group of variables that affect the ratio of money traded outside the banking system to the money supply in the broad sense. Design/methodology/approach – The study has adopted analytical and descriptive research methods to estimate SE in Palestinian territories. The data has been obtained from the inflation reports issued by the Palestinian Monetary Authority for ten years, from 2008 to 2018. A standard model was constructed using EViews version 8 for statistical data processing after converting the annual data to quarterly data. Findings –The authors demonstrated that the size of the SE in Palestinian territories has varied over time, and the annual average of its size during the study period reached about $1764.893 (in millions). This amount constitutes about 15.5% of the gross domestic product. The study provides recommendations for reducing the size of the SE in Palestinian territories. Practical implications – The current study shows that shadow economics could significantly matter for economic policy design by policymakers. Originality/value – This study deals directly with Tanzi’s “estimation of shadow economy in Palestinian territories” concept and its impact on economic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between macroeconomic fundamentals, intuitional quality and shadow economy. Design/methodology/approach: By utilizing data setspanning from 2004 to 2015 of 141 countries, the study has employed advanced panel technique, i.e. Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method. In order to check consistency of the results, the study also used fixed effect and random effect for robustness. Findings: The study finds that for the full sample, institutional quality has negative effect on shadow economy while macroeconomic fundaments effect shadow economy differently. After splitting the sample into Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and non-OIC countries subsamples, it observes same influence of macroeconomic fundaments and institutional quality on shadow economy, but the effect of macroeconomic fundaments and institutional quality on shadow economy is less observed for OIC countries. The results are found consistence by using different estimation methods. Originality/value: The current literature has focused on estimating the size of shadow economy and literature linking the macroeconomic fundaments, institutional quality and shadow economy is scarce. Additionally, this study provides the evidence for cross comparison between OIC economies and non-OIC economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The need to alleviate poverty and achieve the United Nations (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Universal Social Protection (USP) mechanisms is a high priority for governments and international organisations (IOs). This paper focuses on the recent introduction of a general minimum income (GMI) in Greece, in the context of the international diffusion of governing expertise. It examines whether the "universal" scheme being implemented constitutes a paradigm shift likely to offer solutions to the country's previous fragmented and unjust welfare system, and to problems the society has faced since the 2010s depression. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses critical grounded theory, with data gathering through iterative field observations and semi-structured interviews. Findings: Results highlight the elusiveness of USP normative promises: rather than enhancing people's effective freedoms to act as self-determining agents, USP pushes the poor to adapt to current degraded socio-economic conditions. Participation in the shadow economy is a structural feature of USP; it is implicitly tolerated insofar as it is regarded, in the words of the World Bank (WB), an "engine for growth". This constitutes an institutional and governance challenge for the implementation and expansion of social welfare programmes and could compromise the 2030 SDGs Agenda. Originality/value: While research to date has examined the "modernisation" of the Greek welfare system in a national or comparative perspective, it adds to the literature by framing the study in the field of global social policy, shedding light on the discrepancies between internationally designed mechanisms and the normative aims of USP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]