2023/12/22 by Andrea López-Luzuriaga, Andrea Lopez-Luzuriaga, Mónica Calijuri +6
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics #Taxation and Compliance Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10797-023-09811-y
openalex publication_date 2023/12/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract We use information from the electronic billing system to estimate the underreporting of income of private sector employees. We follow an expenditure-based methodology using the consumption of public and private sector employees for similar levels of reported income. We find that private sector employees underreport between 7 and 9% of their income in Ecuador. The size of the underreporting gap is negatively correlated with the number of employees at the firm, consistent with different risks and administrative costs of ‘envelope wages’ in small versus large firms.