The concept of informal economy, impact on macro variables on sample of Turkey

Informal economy is defined as all kinds of economic activities which are not under the control of the public authority. Informal economy is derived from economic activities which are unrecordable revenue-generating and out of gross domestic product calculations. The informal economy is a universal phenomenon that exists at different levels in all developed and developing countries. The informal economy, which is beginning to constitute major problems in countries today, is a very complex and difficult problem in terms of its causes, consequences and functioning. The first study to measure the informal economy was conducted by Philip CAGAN in 1958 to measure the informal economy of the United States. The concept of informal economy in Turkey was first made by Prof. Dr. Osman ALTUĞ. The variables of inflation, tax burden and unemployment which are thought to have an effect on the informal economy in the study have analyzed. In this context, a data set covering the years 1971-2016 was created and a time series analysis have conducted. As a result of the analysis, it can be seen that 1971-2016 the tax burden variable has a positive effect estimated by the 1.3170 coefficient on the informal economy, the unemployment variable has a positive effect estimated by the coefficient 0.6233 and finally the positive effect estimated by the coefficient 0.0853 of the inflation variable.