Shadow Economy: Government Control Measures

Abstract

Introduction. The article considers the issues of conceptual understanding of the shadow economy in the difficult economic situation of modern capitalism. Being the main threat to the economic security of the state, the shadow economy in a crisis becomes a source of numerous social risks and a key destabilizing factor. Forming patterns of illegal and irrational economic behavior, the shadow economy creates a space for the redistribution of economic benefits through criminal forms and means. The absence of established economic regulators, capitalist rationality in most developing countries leads to a parallel coexistence / symbiosis / interaction of the shadow and official economies. The author examines the causes and consequences of the functioning of the shadow economy, special attention is paid to the problem of the interaction of the shadow economy with the state-legal mechanism, in particular, the contradictory phenomenon of «state failure» in the gaps of the shadow economy is investigated. The article provides a multilevel analysis of the shadow economy, and offers recommendations.Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study was the basic general scientific (structural-activity approach) and special methods of cognition of economic and legal phenomena and processes. The complexity and complexity of the topic necessitated the use of statistical and dynamic methods of system, comparative and factor analysis. An important role also belongs to the systemgenetic approach, which allows one to analyze the problem of the shadow economy through the dialectical interconnection and interaction of the whole and elements of the «shadow economy – state – man» system.The results of the study. As a result of the study, the need to rethink the phenomenon of the shadow economy in the context of interaction with both the «white» official economy and the state legal mechanism was substantiated. As part of the development of the thesis about the patterns between the crisis in the economy and the social sphere, the growth of shadow economic activity shows that the shadow economy is necessarily built into distribution mechanisms and production relations. The study identified and analyzed the relationship of the shadow economy with the patterns and trends of the transition economy.Discussion and conclusions. The necessity of regular and thoughtful understanding of the shadow economy by the scientific community is substantiated. The challenges of the modern world require intelligent solutions, this article is just an answer to complex and pressing problems.