Chosen aspects of the shadow economy in the world and in Slovakia

Abstract

The presented paper deals with chosen aspects of the shadow economy in the world and in Slovakia. The shadow economy is a worldwide phenomenon and shadow-economic activities may generate different effects and problems. It is generally known that it involves legal or illegal economic activities of any economic entity, which are performed outside the reach and control of government authorities. The aim of the article is to present chosen information on the shadow economy from the global aspect, subsequently to describe and analyse shadow-economic activities that are typical for the Slovak economy. In the context of the paper’s aim, the authors divided the paper in two main parts. The introduction part is devoted to the theoretical aspects of the discussed issue with emphasize on defining of the shadow economy and determining main aspects that are analysed in connection with the shadow economy. In the second part, the authors mainly deal with the issue of measuring of the shadow economy. In this part, inter alia, the authors present chosen information on the shadow economy from the global perspective by summarizing already existing findings. An important part of this section constitute findings of different analyses of the shadow economy and shadow-economic activities in Slovakia. The authors present findings from already existing analyses as well as their own findings to get a comprehensive view on the discussed issue. Based on the findings, in the last part, authors will present proposals how to solve and fight against shadow-economic activities.