Book Review: Tax Evasion and the Shadow Economy

• Author: Friedrich Schneider
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567713477658
• Date: 01 March 2013
• Published date: 01 March 2013
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

102
International Criminal Justice Review 23(1)
Michael Pickhardt and Aloys Prinz (Eds.)
Tax Evasion and the Shadow Economy Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Company, 2012. 200 p. $ 107.18.
ISBN 978-0-85793-703-2
Reviewed by: Friedrich Schneider, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Linz, Austria
DOI: 10.1177/1057567713477658
In Tax Evasion and the Shadow Economy, the editors address a topic that is not only interesting but is
also a viable research area to academics and professionals alike. With respect to tax evasion, this
book adds to the extant literature by evaluating strategies employed in the discovery and prevention
of tax evasion and by examining motivations of individuals who commit such crimes. In addition,
this article focuses attention on the impact of the shadow economy on the formal economy with
particular emphasis on its European impact. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 provides
a short overview, Part 2 defines and evaluates tax evasion, and Part 3 rounds out the story by explor-
ing the shadow economy.
In order to provide the reader with an overview of this topic, in Part 1, the Pickhardt and Prinz
give a type of survey about the nature of tax evasion and the shadow economy. Part 2 of Tax Evasion
and the Shadow Economy consists of three papers specifically written about the subject of tax
evasion. This section begins with a contribution by James Alm in which he designs alternative stra-
tegies to reduce tax evasion. Alm is a leading scholar in this field and provides a comprehensive
survey of the most recent results of theoretical, empirical, experimental, and agent-based research
on tax evasion and tax compliance. In the next chapter, M. Rosaria Marino and Roberta Zizza
analyze the issues of personal income tax evasion in Italy and, among other things; they find that
on average over 13.5% of net income is anticipated. In the last chapter of Part 2, Gloria Alarco´n
Garcia, Arielle Beyaert, and Laura de Pablos undertake an analysis of female versus...