Measuring the Cohesion of Informal Economy in Agriculture in New European Union Member States

Abstract

The present paper evaluates the size and development of the informal economy in agriculture in 10 new EU member states from 2004–2020. A novel agriculture-tailored multiple indicators Multiple Causes model was derived to estimate the size of the informal economy in agriculture. It was revealed that the share of the informal economy in agriculture has decreased from 40 to 31%. The level of cohesion of the informal economy in agriculture shows an opposite trend compared with other economic sectors, indicating an increasing divergence from mainstream economic trends.