Analysing drivers of and barriers to the sustainable development: hidden economy and hidden migration

Abstract

The actual global crisis seems to influence negatively the sustainable development in EU countries. At least partially the informal economy escapes from the official registered GDP and hidden migration from the official demographic statistics. This can affect in a significant way the measurement of sustainable development and consequently policies in this field. Coming from general accepted findings of the theory, we concentrate on evaluating the reasons of agents to be involved in hidden economy and estimating the size of this part of economy. Today, there are evidences of a tendency to extended hidden migration together with an increasing official migration usually from eastern EU members to western countries. In a sense, hidden migration could be in relation with informal economy. Using some indirect procedures, we try to estimate the size of hidden migration and its impact on the official side of economy and its potential growth in the future. The main application of the developed methodology is in case of Romania.informal income; inactive population; emigration potential; hidden migration