۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Global problems of shadow economy estimation methodologies: theoretical background

۳٫ The statistics of shadow economy scope in Lithuania by different methodologies

۴٫ The features of digital shadow economy

۵٫ Conclusions

Funding

Reference

The article covers an extremely topical but hardly researched problem of digital shadow economy estimation. Thus far, the phenomenon of digital shadow economy has not been universally defined either by scientists or by institutions responsible for the combat with shadow economy. Traditional shadow economy is commonly estimated applying direct and indirect methods possessing their strengths and weaknesses. As a result, final estimations of shadow economies are rather variant. For instance, with reference to Schneider (2014), the scope of shadow economy in Lithuania achieved 27 per cent rate in 2014 whereas the figure estimated by Lithuanian Department of Statistics composed 15 per cent rate. It can be presumed that the divergence of the results has been determined by application of different shadow economy estimation methods. The interviews with the experts of shadow economy have revealed that although the volumes of e-trade and e-transactions are increasing, indicators of digital shadow are not still included in the estimations of shadow economy.

Introduction

Topicality of the problem. The phenomenon of digital shadow economy has been analysed in numerous scientific and information sources due to its specificity and depth of the problem. Thus far, the concept of shadow economy has not been precisely defined either in national or in international levels, which serves as the key reason for rather different scopes of shadow economy calculation and estimation. According to Zukauskas (2013), estimation of the real scopes of labour market shadow, as well as estimation of the other shadow economy activities, is complicated since shadow market operators are inclined to hide their activities. For the purpose to describe shadow economy and estimate its scopes, at least roughly, the variety of methods is engaged. Following the statistics, the figures of shadow economy in European countries are significantly different. The scopes of shadow economies in the countries of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe are considered to be the highest. Transfer of business activities to electronic space alongside with increasing volumes of e-trade determine the need to establish which share of shadow economy has been transferred to remote (electronic) platforms. The fact that the concept of shadow economy has not been universally defined in any official documents, proposes that this sphere has been insufficiently researched.