The Shadow Economy and Globalization: A Comparison Between Difference GMM and System GMM Approaches

In a general classification, the economy of any country is divided into two parts of official and invisible economies. Invisible activities drop outside the scope of the law and official economy and strongly affect socioeconomic development and the formal sector of all countries.These activities which are known under various titles including the shadow economy are influenced by various factors. This paper examined the effects of globalization on the shadow economy. The study was conducted for a selection of developing countries and transition economies during the period from 1999 to 2009 using Differenced Generalized Method of Moments (Difference-GMM) and System Generalized Method of Moments (System-GMM) approaches. Finally, a comparison was made between these two approaches. The results of the study indicated the superiority of System GMM approach in comparison with Differenced GMM. Due to the results of the System GMM as the superior approach, there was an inverse relationship between the shadow economy and globalization. In other words, less economic freedoms and restrictions in various economic areas such as taxation and investments increase the size of the shadow economy. The increase of the shadow economy can be considered as a threat to the national output.