Page 116 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 6

CPS1839 Bahija Nali et al.
1. Introduction
GDP or gross domestic product is an economic aggregate that measures
the level of production and wealth achieved within a country or zone during a
given period, typically the year or quarter. It is an aggregate that is widely used
by national policy makers for the establishment of adequate economic
policies, and by international organization for international comparison
purposes. For this reason, national accountants are compelled to ensure the
exhaustiveness of the measurement of the various activities included in this
indicator according to the standards defined by the System of National
Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA).
To achieve exhaustiveness, national accountants must identify the entire
productive universe and collect information on all activities that fall within the
production boundary. However, the character extremely broad of this area,
which is defined by the SNA, makes the task very difficult. It recommends that
all economic activities, irrespective of their nature: formal or informal, legal or
illegal and declared or unreported, be included in national accounts estimates.
Nevertheless, information on these activities is generally lacking, and it is
difficult to take into account because they are not covered by statistical data
collection, and constitute "gray areas" to which the national accountant must
shed light.
Despite the difficulty and delicacy of the task, the national accountant is
forging the necessary means to capture the unrecorded statistics and clarify
the "gray areas". Its objective is to measure all the production carried out in
its economic territory and consequently to ensure the exhaustiveness of the
aggregate which synthesizes this production which is the GDP.
But far from ensuring the exhaustiveness of the GDP, the unrecorded
statistics hides behind it atypical forms of work, which are precarious and
unprotected and do not guarantee decent work for those who exercise them,
and to which attention must be paid. The development of national policies for
the improvement of individual well-being should normally be part of a line
that aims to target this segment of the population. To do so, we must first
locate it, and then estimate its importance and its contribution to the national
production.
Several researchers have attempted to estimate the unrecorded portion of
GDP through macroeconomic models, but their results are too dependent on
macroeconomic assumptions. And reassessing GDP on their bases would lead
to inconsistencies that are difficult to justify by the economic system.
The estimation of the "shadow economy" by macro-modeling methods
consists in the elaboration of models through explanatory variables. These are
the models that use tax evasion rates, the circulation of money or the
consumption of electricity. However, experience in developed and developing
countries has shown the inefficiency of these models to clearly identify “areas

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