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Abstract:
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This study collects the informal economy estimates for population and income of the frontrunner in the field, the non-profit Social Compact, for five cities: Cleveland, New York (Harlem), Houston, Oakland, Santa Ana, and San Francisco. It then examines raw data from the sources they use to measure the informal economy, including census, Claritas, Axciom and other credit bureau ratings, utility data, number of utility payments made in cash and number of check-cashing and other non-traditional financial institutions, locations, and number of building and renovation permits applied for in the study neighborhoods, and attempts to determine which characteristics are the best predictors of the size of the informal economy. The study ultimately concludes that education, commute time and distance, home sale price distribution, household income distribution, race, owner occupancy and other neighborhood stability measures, and family, household, and population size are the most useful indicators, and that the Claritas and InfoUSA datasets add so little to the model that they likely are not worth purchasing when attempting to determine the size of the informal economy and population undercount. |