The Extent of Undeclared Work in Germany 2001–2007

In Chap. 6 we calculated the incidence of undeclared work, i.e. how many people are involved, how much time they spend on such activities each week, and how much they are paid or receive in return. With this information we have a means of estimating the total extent of undeclared work. One way is to calculate the total number of hours spent on such activities in 1 year as a proportion of the total number of declared hours worked in the formal economy. This corresponds to measuring the undeclared sector relative to official GDP on the assumption that productivity is the same in the informal sector as in the formal economy within the various trades and industries or sectors, and also that overall average productivity or value added across trades and industries is the same.