The Underground Economy of Czech Republic and Tax Evasion: The Currency Demand Approach

This study investigates the underground economy of Czech Republic and the associated losses in tax revenue. The presence of an underground economy may not necessarily be bad for the economies in which they prevail but they could cause huge losses to government revenue and could also constitute serious violation of labour regulations. The study uses the Currency Demand Approach. It measures the size of the underground economy in two stages: a) the econometric estimation of an aggregate money demand equation b) the calculation of the value of the underground economy through the quantity theory of money. The key variables in the study include: the total currency held outside the banking system, the number of automatic teller machines, the deposit interest rate, GDP deflator, the average tax, velocity of money, nominal GDP and nominal money supply. The results from the study show that the underground economy of Czech Republic on the average is about 20.9% as at the end of 2013 and the country loses an average tax revenue of about 7.2% of GDP yearly. The data was obtained from the World Bank country indicators and the International Financial Statistics.