It turns out there is a clear relation between the extent of undeclared work within a country and the type of economic policies that are implemented. This conclusion emerges from an analysis in a large number of Western countries, commissioned by Randstad.

The study shows that those economies with a small undeclared sector succeeded in reducing the supply of undeclared work, on the one hand by providing good social services and on the other hand by means of active labour market policies leading people into formal employment. By making it easier for companies to turn to temporary employment through temp agencies to meet their flexible labour demands, the demand for undeclared work also diminishes.

These findings can be read in the report Flexibility@work 2014; tackling undeclared work, published by Randstad. The report was written by Colin Williams from the University of Sheffield and Piet Renooy of Regioplan Policy Research.

Regioplan and Ernst & Young jointly conducted a study on the economic impact of SABMiller in ten European countries. The study is an update of a report published in 2011. In addition to economic effects, the study also pays attention to corporate responsibility and the importance of SABMiller breweries for suppliers in the regions in which they are located.

You can find the report on the website of SABMiller.

This study is part of the annual reports of ENAR (European Network Against Racism), situated in Brussels. The shadow report describes developments with regard to racism and discrimination in the national labour markets in Europe. The project was carried out in cooperation with the Leuven Catholic University. The report can be downloaded here.

This study was commissioned by The Brewers of Europe and aimed to quantify the economic impact of the brewing sector in the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU). We have also quantified the economic impact for the brewing sector in three other European countries Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. The results regarding these three countries are not included in the data presented in the EU report as it describes the aggregated economic impact of the brewing sector in the EU only.

The current study is the fifth edition of the economic impact research undertaken by Regioplan and EY. The first report was published in January 2006 (covering the 2005 impact).

More information?
Click here for a short video on the main results of our study. You can download the EU report here.
In the report we also refer to another Regioplan report focusing on cross-border beer shopping in the Netherlands. You can download an English translation of the executive summary of this study here.

The main objective of this project was to conduct a systematic overview of policies, instruments and measures in the field of legitimating Undeclared Work (UDW) (e.g. simplified declarations), commitment (e.g. service vouchers), and prevention-regularisation (e.g. mass regularisations) of undeclared work in EU countries. The study delivers:
1. a structured overview of recent policies;
2. an in-depth description of all documented measures in the field of legitimating UDW, commitment and prevention-regularisation;
3. an assessment of the measures mentioned under 2. above, including one or more summary tables indicating the order of magnitude of official jobs achieved through the measures.
The study commissioned by the European Commission (DG Employment Directorate) is not public and will be part of the report ‘Employment and Social Developments in Europe, 2013’.

Our study ‘Nog een rondje van de buren’ (Cross-border shopping in the Netherlands) for the Dutch brewers’ association showed that the increase in excise duties on beer for 2013 (+10%) led to a fall in domestic sales and a strong increase in the beer purchases made by Dutch consumers in both Germany and Belgium. Based on beer sales data for the first quarter of 2013, Regioplan calculated that excise duty revenue will be lower than expected: an increase of only 27 million euros against the Dutch Government expected 39 million euros.

Partly as a result of our study, the cross-border effect of an increase of excise duties was acknowledged by the Dutch government. Instead of a planned additional increase of 10 percent of the beer excises duties in 2014, the proposed rise is now set at 5.75 percent.

More information?
Below, you can download an English translation of the executive summary of this study.

This study describes the main features of the Dutch labour inspection system vis-à-vis undeclared work. It highlights a selection of practices that have proven to be effective.

Europe is winning the war on undeclared work.
A wide range of policy approaches and measures introduced in all EU Member States over the past five years have had a significant impact on preventing businesses and people from engaging in undeclared work, new research from Eurofound has found. It recorded an incremental decline in the size of the undeclared economy from the equivalent of 22.3% of GDP in 2003 to 18.4% by 2012, although there were large differences between countries.
The results of our study can be found on the website of Eurofound.

The European Balloon & Party Council (EBPC) has commissioned Regioplan to write a report on the contribution and role of balloons in Europe. The project resulted in a compact position paper on balloons in the European Union.
The methodology used for estimating this economic impact is developed by Regioplan. It is a model that has also been used in a wide range of other sectors.

This study found that there is large variation in the level of undeclared work in these countries. In Iceland the size of the undeclared economy is below the EU27 average, for example, while in the other countries it is above that average. These countries also varied in terms of how coordinated or fragmented the organisational approach to tackling undeclared work was and with regard to the involvement of social partners in tackling undeclared work – although there was some level of tripartite social dialogue on the topic in all five countries.
The results of our study can be found on the website of Eurofound.