RELIGION, ETHNICITY AND FAMILY NON-ECONOMIC FACTORS OF INFLUENCE OF THE UNDERGROUND ECONOMY

Abstract

Most of the times, the etiologic perspective on the underground economy is given by the economic, quasieconomic factors and issues concerning the reference of economic subjects to the criminal and fiscal standard. The noneconomic factors such as religion, ethnicity and family were either minimized or constituted the object of summary analyses. The comprehensive evaluation of the phenomenon “underground economy” cannot be made in the absence of taking into consideration of all determinant factors. The composite and multidimensional nature of the underground economy is the result of action and manifestation of economic actors seen as individual or group entities and in which family, ethnic groups (minorities) or religion play an important role. The concepts of family, ethnicity, religion function by reference to norms, codes or economic, social or cultural standards. The violation, tampering and misappropriation of the meaning of some norms can have social, legal and last but not least economic consequences. In our opinion the fiscal-economic, institutional and law-marking consequences that generate and sustain the underground phenomenon could be explained and understood better if they were deciphered in a manner closer to the social context depicted by family, ethnicity and religion. Having as background the “underground economy”, some concepts such as fraud behaviour, tax morality, ethnic conflicts or entrepreneurial development (by formalizing informal activities) can be interpreted with more pertinence through analysis tools: family bonds, religious habits and characteristics of ethnical groups. This paper represents a pleading for an integrative, multi causal approach of the underground phenomenon.

Keywords

• underground economy
• tax morality
• economics of religion
• entrepreneurial development
• amoral familism