If Development of Technologies can Win Shadow Economy

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to evaluate mutual influence of technological development and shadow economy, and answer the question if the shadow economy is reduced with the development of technologies. We are studying whether there is any link between such indicators as the shadow economy scale and the economy structure; ecological efficiency of the national economy; share of RD expenditure in GDP; labor productivity. The World Bank data, International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities and Environmental Performance Index were used in the research. The studying sample consists of 402 observations covering the period 2010-2015 years. Studying process includes correlation analysis and cluster analysis of the data using SPSS. The main conclusion is that there is a statistical relationship among the scale of the shadow economy and the indicators of the structure of the economy; ecological efficiency of the economy; the share of RD in GDP, and an indicator of labor productivity. The share of RD expenditure in GDP is extremely low in the countries with a high level of shadow economy, as well as in the countries that have a significant share of resource rents in GDP. The increase in the share of RD expenditure in GDP will be associated with both growth in labor productivity and a decrease in the size of the shadow economy.