A Critical Evaluation of Public Policy Towards Undeclared Work in the European Union

Abstract: To evaluate critically public policy towards undeclared work in the European Union, this paper presents a typology of the various potential policy approaches, ranging from repressive measures to those seeking to enable compliance, so as to provide a lens through which the breadth of practices currently adopted can be viewed. The finding is that despite signs of growing experimentation with a wider range of measures, most countries remain firmly entrenched in a repressive approach that seeks to detect and punish non-compliance. Evaluating critically this dominant approach, this paper reveals not only the paucity of evidence of the effectiveness of repressive approaches at eliciting behaviour change but also how EU member states through the repression of undeclared work unintentionally stifle precisely the entrepreneurship and active citizenship that elsewhere on their policy agendas they are so desperately seeking to nurture. The paper concludes by discussing the ways forward for public policy.