Invisible, outlawed, and untaxed : America's underground economy /

The underground economy is an important subject. A large or rapidly growing invisible economy is demoralizing to those who play by the rules. Useful public policies must be based on accurate statistics, so extensive unreported activity can easily convert seemingly reasonable policies into policy mistakes. Greenfield (emeritus, Queens College, CUNY) surveys the literature on the US's underground economy, pointing out the statistical problems that surround every writer's quantitive estimates, but he does not suggest reliable ways to make underground activities statistically visible. Until that is done we have only speculations. Greenfield's speculations are undermined by his imprecise use of basic economic terms like elasticity and by his awkward writing style. R. T. Averitt; Smith College