Going a Step Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole: Deep Learning Model to Measure the Size of the Unregistered Economy Activity

Accurately estimating the size of unregistered economies is crucial for informed policymaking and economic analysis. However, many studies seem to overfit partial data as these use simple linear regression models. Recent studies adopted a more advanced approach, using non-linear models obtained using machine learning techniques. In this study, we take a step forward on the road of data-driven models for the unregistered economy activity’s (UEA) size prediction using a novel deep-learning approach. The proposed two-phase deep learning model combines an AutoEncoder for feature representation and a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) for time-series prediction. We show it outperforms traditional linear regression models and current state-of-the-art machine learning-based models, offering a more accurate and reliable estimation. Moreover, we show that the proposed model is better in generalizing UEA’s dynamics across countries and timeframes, providing policymakers with a more profound group to design socio-economic policies to tackle UEA.