Media and Options for Action: The Black Economy and the New Media

This workshop looks at what is generally called »undeclared employment.« In recent years the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung) at Tübingen has done considerable research on the black economy. The starting point for a current research project the Institute is doing for the Federal Ministry of Finance is the idea that research into fiscal honesty can play a key role in understanding tax evasion. A key feature of the research is an attempt to measure and explain fiscal honesty in international comparison. Dr. Harald Strotmann, director of the Institute and one of the authors of the study, will present the most significant results.
Technological developments in the field of new media have in some ways considerably encouraged employment in the black economy, while at the same time, however, offering the possibility of countering it. These aspects of the black economy in the new media context will be examined in a paper by Uwe Hochmuth M.A., Treasurer of the City of Karlsruhe.