HIGHLIGHTS, CONCEPTS AND METHODS IN ADDRESSING THE SHADOW ECONOMY: THEORETICAL APPROACH AND SOME COUNTRIES? EXPERIENCE

From ancient times the shadow economy has always found various ways and means to have its presence in any national economy in various forms. The development of this phenomenon leads to an economic activity parallel to the official one, which will eventually lead to the loss of control of the state authorities. The paper aims to make a general analysis of the theoretical aspects of shadow economy, being focused on concept approach, methodology of evaluation, as well as presentation of some countries' experience in assessing the shadow economy. Taking into account that the paper has a pronounced theoretical character, the research methods are mainly focused on bibliographic research of foreign and local articles of scholars who dedicated their work to assessing the shadow economy. At the same time, a series of other scientific research methods have been used such as: the logical-abstract method, the method of comparison, the monographic method, etc. The main results are focused on development of an own definition of shadow economy by the authors and assessment of evaluation methods through their advantages and limits.