Illegal economy participants engage in the production and distribution of prohibited goods and services, such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking, and prostitution. The "illegal economy" consists of the income produced by those economic activities pursued in violation of legal statutes defining the scope of legitimate forms of commerce. Four major underground economies can be identified: Different types of underground activities are distinguished according to the particular institutional rules that they violate. Those engaged in underground activities circumvent, escape or are excluded from the institutional system of rules, rights, regulations and enforcement penalties that govern formal agents engaged in production and exchange. These underground economies are omnipresent, existing in market oriented as well as in centrally planned nations, be they developed or developing. There is no single underground economy there are many. The literature on the black market has not established a common terminology and has instead offered many synonyms including: subterranean hidden grey shadow informal clandestine illegal unobserved unreported unrecorded second parallel and black.
Mercado Negro, so called "Black Market", in La Paz, Bolivia. Because of the clandestine nature of the black economy it is not possible to determine its size and scope. The black market is distinct from the grey market, in which commodities are distributed through channels that, while legal, are unofficial, unauthorized, or unintended by the original manufacturer, and the white market, in which trade is legal and official.īlack money is the proceeds of an illegal transaction, on which income and other taxes have not been paid, and which can only be legitimised by some form of money laundering. Typically the totality of such activity is referred to with the definite article as a complement to the official economies, by market for such goods and services, e.g.
Common motives for operating in black markets are to trade contraband, avoid taxes and regulations, or skirt price controls or rationing. Cash usage is the preferred medium of exchange in illegal transactions since cash usage does not leave a footprint. īecause tax evasion or participation in a black market activity is illegal, participants will attempt to hide their behavior from the government or regulatory authority.
#What is the black market code#
Violations of the tax code involving income tax evasion constitute membership in the unreported economy. Examples include the drug trade, prostitution (where prohibited), illegal currency transactions and human trafficking. Parties engaging in the production or distribution of prohibited goods and services are members of the illegal economy. If the rule defines the set of goods and services whose production and distribution is prohibited by law, non-compliance with the rule constitutes a black market trade since the transaction itself is illegal.
#What is the black market series#
A black market, underground economy or shadow economy, is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by some form of noncompliant behavior with an institutional set of rules.