A COMPLEX APPROACH TO ESTIMATE SHADOW ECONOMY: THE STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING.

This paper deals with the empirical research strategies/possibilities of complex economic systems. On the one side economics theory is more and more opening to the ones of social sciences; on the other side, the empirical procedures used are much less often to adapt empirical methods of other social disciplines. Hence an opening towards social sciences can help the economic profession to develop more efficient and broader empirical methodologies to empirically analyse complex phenomenon of an economic system like the shadow economy. We review the literature and estimation procedure on one special case of structural equation modelling, the Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model. This bearing in mind the lack of other reliable methods, we conclude that the (DY-) MIMIC approach is one of the best approaches to analyse the shadow economy, and is a good example of the advantages derived by an open-mindedness and multidisciplinary approach desirable for the economic research