TITLE:
Estimating the Size of the Shadow Economy in Nine MENA Countries during the Period 2000 to 2017 Using the MIMIC Model
AUTHORS:
Ahmed Magdy Abd El Aziz Mansour, Iman Moheb Zaki
KEYWORDS:
Shadow Economy, GDP, Macro-Economic Indicators, MIMIC Model, Developing Countries, MENA Countries
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.6 No.7,
July
18,
2019
ABSTRACT: Shadow economy exists in many countries. The unknown shadow economy may interrupt several economic indicators and may result in deviation from the planned and forecasted economic outcomes. The research estimates the size of the shadow economy in Egypt and eight developing MENA countries during the period 2000 to 2017 using the MIMIC approach. The research follows the descriptive explanatory approach based on the quantitative method. The results reveal a significant relation between each of Total Tax/GDP, Intensity of Regulation, and Corruption/Quality of public institutions, Unemployment Rate, Self-employment Rate, and Size of the Agricultural Sector, Fairness of Income Distribution, Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Labor Force Participation Rate and the Size of the Shadow Economy.