Below the Surface: Underground Economic Activity (Underground MARKETS‪)‬

Though policymakers, researchers, journalists, and others speak frequently of the underground economy, they often talk past each other because underground economic activity has not been clearly defined. Is it the production and distribution of illicit goods and services, such as crack cocaine and prostitution? Does one instead mean economic production that is simply unaccounted for because the producers wish to avoid paying taxes--as in the case of a bartering transaction between a dentist and her manicurist? Or are we referring to home production--the value of output from the family garden plot? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]