Estimation of the Russian informal economy size on the household budget survey data

Figures & data

Table 1. Individual characteristics descriptive statistics (%)

Variable	% total	% non_se	% 0–20_se	% 20–100_se
D_couple	52.80	54.09	52.54	48.28
D_white_collar	45.80	49.79	42.12	38.17
D_white_collar_male	33.32	35.52	32.00	27.53
D_educ_sec_special	41.76	42.49	42.32	37.74
D_educ_higher	36.69	39.05	33.80	33.55
D_children	89.87	90.05	90.70	87.42
D_life_satisfaction	15.51	15.29	15.15	17.10
D_wish_other_job	31.19	29.71	29.94	39.57
D_have_other_job	4.24	4.60	3.54	4.30
D_living_improvement	11.05	11.63	9.09	12.90
D_vacation_possible	20.57	22.68	17.72	18.28
D_child_study_pay	19.27	20.53	16.74	19.68

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of income decomposition

Stats	Wage income	Total income	Other income	Self- employment income
N (>0, <0)	4,412	6,359	4,475	2,880
“zero” value	2,105	158	2,042	3,637
Mean	33,700	37,126	13478	9,405
SD	29,838	33,929	9,532	21,905
SD/mean	0.89	0.91	0.71	2.33
Min	990	130	85	0
Max	420,000	425,600	175,000	320,300

Figure 1. The density of self-employment share of income distribution (self-employment income >0).

Table 3. Income decomposition descriptive statistics for the households with positive income from self-employment, grouped by the share of self-employment income in total income

Variable	Obs	Mean	SD	Min	Max
D_self_empl = 0
Total_Inc.	1,947	34,532.18	27,969.09	1,000	276,500
Wage_Inc.	1,947	20,335.45	26,283.81	0	243,000
Other_Inc.	1,947	10,769.81	10,052.66	0	99,000
Self_employment_Inc.	1,947	3,426.922	8,190.329	0	192,000
D_self_empl = 1
Total_Inc.	932	44,003.35	50,014.41	1,500	425,300
Wage_Inc.	932	14,866.87	24,496.69	0	220,000
Other_Inc.	932	7,232.321	9,178.869	0	120,000
Self_employment_Inc.	932	21,904.16	3,3352.1	600	320,300

Table 4. Descriptive statistics for household expenses, including the consumption of household-produced goods

	Entire sample	No income from s.-e.	Share of revenue from s.-e. < 20%	Share of revenue from s.-e. ≥ 20%
Expenditures for meals at home, normalized to 30 days	9,518	9,462	9,143	9,502
(*) Consumption of home-produced goods	458	445	520	1,403
Expenditures for meals at home, normalized to 30 days, adjusted for (*)	9,976	9,907	9,663	10,905
Expenditures for eating out, normalized to 30 days	1,550	1,718	1,283	1,402
Estimated total expenditures for food	11,069	11,180	10,427	10,904
Estimated total expenditures for food, adjusted for (*)	11,519	11,625	10,946	12,307
Expenditures for clothes over the past 30 days	2,436	2,486	2,182	2,770
Expenditures for services over the past 30 days	7,248	7,499	6,641	7,529
Expenditures for health care over the past 30 days	2,138	2,127	2,109	2,247
Other expenditures over the past 30 days	2,671	2,765	2,324	3,024
Total current consumer expenditures on goods for 30 days	26,012	26,502	24,202	27,877
Expenditures for durable goods, normalized to 30 days	6,930	6,866	5,925	9,285
Total expenditures	32,942	33,368	30,127	37,162
Total income	36,082	35,020	34,514	43,500

Table 5. The informal economy size estimation for two samples—first (full) and second (people with positive income from self-employment)

N	Model	Difference in clothes expenditures for self-employed (%)	Income under-report coefficient bounds	Size of informal economy estimate (%)
				Sample 1	Sample 2
(1)	General	8.39**	1.09–1.26	1.46–4.43	3.19–9.67
(2)	White_collar	11.49**	1.15–1.39	2.21–5.77	5.21–13.62
(5)	Non_couple	15.37**	1.21–1.43	3.99–8.13	8.60–17.50
(7)	Non_couple_blue_collar	16.40**	1.32–1.49	8.25–12.73	13.32–20.57
(8)	Couple_white_collar	11.36*	1.14–1.38	2.15–5.69	4.92–13.03
(11)	Couple_white_collar_female	33.73**	1.36–1.82	5.69–12.79	13.12–29.51

^* Significant difference at 10% level.

^** Significant difference at 5% level.

Table 6. The estimation of the informal economy size on the base of the system of equations

	Sample 1	Sample 2
k wage_Inc.	1.224	1.224
k self_empl_Inc.	1.412	1.412
Sample size	6,508	2,877
Mean wage income	22,720	18,511
Mean self employment income	4,105	9,286
Mean other income	9,258	9,627
Mean total income	36,082	37,423
Mean wage income (*k wage)	27,813	22,662
Mean income of self employed (*k se)	5,795	13,108
Mean other income	9,258	9,627
Mean total income new	42,866	45,397
Informal economy estimate	18.80%	21.31%