Sexual services, drugs and human trafficking, smuggling – in GDP figures: Quality of life indicators
Abstract
In recent years different kind of antisocial and criminal activities,
according to the EU regulations, are being included in GDP indicators.
The activities, included in GDP indicators are as follows: those of criminal
nature (drugs, arms and human trafficking, corruptive activities, etc.); illegal
activities, which are not of criminal nature (businesses without licenses
and special permits, poaching, etc.); legal activities, though the income
from them is not taxed and not recorded (prostitution, alcohol production,
etc.); illegal use of intellectual property objects (illegal use of unlicensed
programmes). Estimates on the inclusion of illegal, among them criminal
activities in GDP indicators are important not only to learn the actual size
of GDP, but also to give a chance to the law enforcement authorities to pay
attention to separate areas of unregulated economic activities. The author of
the article outlines the approximate extent of illegal and informal economic
activities and their share in GDP, describes the methods of determination of
the economic sector, as well as analyzes some separate informal economic
sectors, which should be included into GDP.
Description
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Article
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Keywords
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), quality of life level, drug abuse, smuggling, trafficking, prostitution
Citation
Vilks, A. (2016). Sexual services, drugs and human trafficking, smuggling–in GDP figures: Quality of life indicators. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 30, p. 00006). EDP Sciences.