White economy

[sylwiamagdalena]

White economy - what does it mean? What can it mean in official EU papers?
Does it mean legal economy - I mean: reported and taxed economic activity?

Thanks in advance.

[Gość: Steve]

Your suggestion is correct for general purposes. The term 'white economy' has been created as the opposite to the 'black economy', for which there are a range of definitions available on the internet. Eg Longman's describes it as "business activity that takes place secretly, especially in order to avoid tax". Others emphasise the contibution to GDP that is not recorded: See businessdictionary.com/definition/black-economy.html

However, for more detailed economic work, it must be remembered that there is a wide range of legal (white) economic activity that does not need to be reported or taxed: they are individually too small to be worth it. Economists will routinely estimate this as part of the white economy. There can also be political sensitivity to what should be considered to be the black economy. An objective assessment of economic activity would include all criminal activity no matter how disgusting and despicable it may be. However, when European Ministers of Finance include the black economy in their assessments of the real level of economic activity, as in Greece recently, they may well exclude the type of activity that would be stopped by the police immediately if reported. The emphasis being more on tax evasion. The idea that Al Capone's income from criminal activities should have been considered taxable remains controversial.