Underground economy was the subject of ETCO seminar
Source: ETCO
Lectures available
Lecture “Shadow Economy” - Prof. Dr. Friedrich Schneider | PDF version
Lecture “Shadow Economy” - Vito Tanzi | PDF version
(Article) The Shadow Economy, Causes and Consequences
The growth of the shadow economy is a worldwide phenomenon. Recent studies indicate that the size of this part of the economy that does not pay taxes, or is not measured and regulated, is larger than many economists thought and has been growing steadily. The theme did not attract the attention of economists until the 1960s. In 1972, based on work by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the phenomenon gained great prominence and has been the subject of study ever since.
To stimulate debates on the topic and analyze the harmful effects of informality in the Brazilian and global economy, ETCO - Brazilian Institute of Competitive Ethics promoted an international seminar in Rio de Janeiro with the presence of: Friedrich Schneider, full professor of Economics at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, which presented what the informal economy is and what its causes are; and Vito Tanzi, senior consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), who gave a lecture on the impacts of this economy in Brazil and in the world.
André Franco Montoro Filho, Marcílio Marques Moreira, Everaldo Maciel, Joaquim Levy, Jorge Rachid, Samuel Pessoa, Ricardo Vontobel and José Luiz Alquéres also participated in the seminar.
About Friedrich Schneider
Friedrich Schneider is a professor of economics at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. He studied Economics at the University of Konstanz, where he obtained his doctorate in 1977. He taught between 1976 and 1979 at the University of Zurich, where he obtained his certification. He was president of the Austrian Economic Association from 1997 to 1999. In 1998, he became a guest researcher at the IMF (research fellow). In 2005, he was elected president of the German Economics Association. Its analysis focus is on the economic effects of government policy and interventions, as well as on economic analyzes of the causes that determine the size and development of the shadow economy and its interaction with the formal economy.
About Vito Tanzi
An internationally renowned economist, Vito Tanzi is a senior consultant at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He was Undersecretary of Economy and Finance and Minister of Economy and Finance of Italy. At the International Monetary Fund, where he worked for almost three decades, he served as director of the Department of Tax Affairs. He was professor and head of the Department of Economics at American University, consultant to the World Bank (Bird), the UN, the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the Stanford Research Institute. In 1996, he received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. He is known for his research work on Latin American economies and for the so-called “Tanzi effect”, in which, in periods of high inflation, there is a decline in tax revenues.
Publications: Unpublished study in Brazil sheds light on the underground economy
