An Essay on the Anthropology of Underground Economy: The Economic Behavior of the Tenants of a Building in Dorcol

The paper represents a case study of the economic behavior of the tenants of a building in downtown Belgrade. The data was gathered through ethnographic methods of observation and informal interviews. The external indicators of spending, as well as the researcher’s knowledge about the professions an...

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Autores principales:	Ivan Kovačević, Dragana Antonijević
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR SR
Publicado:	University of Belgrade 2016
Materias:	underground economy anthropology of informal earning economic microsystems case study Belgrade Anthropology GN1-890
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/33167ebc95f44f028b0c9514100a9ac7
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:33167ebc95f44f028b0c9514100a9ac7
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:33167ebc95f44f028b0c9514100a9ac72021-12-02T02:51:53ZAn Essay on the Anthropology of Underground Economy: The Economic Behavior of the Tenants of a Building in Dorcol10.21301/eap.v8i1.40353-15892334-8801https://doaj.org/article/33167ebc95f44f028b0c9514100a9ac72016-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://eap-iea.org/index.php/eap/article/view/107https://doaj.org/toc/0353-1589https://doaj.org/toc/2334-8801The paper represents a case study of the economic behavior of the tenants of a building in downtown Belgrade. The data was gathered through ethnographic methods of observation and informal interviews. The external indicators of spending, as well as the researcher’s knowledge about the professions and income of a number of tenants pointed toward the conclusion that informal economy plays a major role in the earnings of the observed households. The goal of this paper is to point out the shortcomings of official statistical data on the income of Serbian citizens on which assessments of the standard of living are based. The outline of an “anthropology of informal earning” is given, and suggested as a way to access information on a wide variety of informal means of acquiring income which are left out of formal statistics, yet enable a significant proportion of Serbian citizens to attain a better standard of living than is suggested by official data. Another goal was to, by making a connection between informal economy and the political choices of Serbian citizens; point out the fact that the revolts occurring over the past two decades were mainly motivated by political and not economic reasons as would be expected. This is especially relevant, keeping in mind the catastrophic economic situation in the country which is often emphasized in public discourse, and taking into account the different events and parameters – starting with the hyperinflation in the first half of the 90’s, international sanctions, the increase in public spending on the part of all the regimes that had been in power, great budget deficits and national debt, up to and including the lack of much needed economic reform. Given all this, it is confounding that economic reasons do not cause the people to revolt, unless, we look to the informal economy which allows a significant number of Serbian citizens to have a more comfortable existence than public data suggests.Ivan KovačevićDragana AntonijevićUniversity of Belgradearticleunderground economyanthropology of informal earningeconomic microsystemscase studyBelgradeAnthropologyGN1-890ENFRSREtnoantropološki Problemi, Vol 8, Iss 1 (2016)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR SR
topic	underground economy anthropology of informal earning economic microsystems case study Belgrade Anthropology GN1-890
spellingShingle	underground economy anthropology of informal earning economic microsystems case study Belgrade Anthropology GN1-890 Ivan Kovačević Dragana Antonijević An Essay on the Anthropology of Underground Economy: The Economic Behavior of the Tenants of a Building in Dorcol
description	The paper represents a case study of the economic behavior of the tenants of a building in downtown Belgrade. The data was gathered through ethnographic methods of observation and informal interviews. The external indicators of spending, as well as the researcher’s knowledge about the professions and income of a number of tenants pointed toward the conclusion that informal economy plays a major role in the earnings of the observed households. The goal of this paper is to point out the shortcomings of official statistical data on the income of Serbian citizens on which assessments of the standard of living are based. The outline of an “anthropology of informal earning” is given, and suggested as a way to access information on a wide variety of informal means of acquiring income which are left out of formal statistics, yet enable a significant proportion of Serbian citizens to attain a better standard of living than is suggested by official data. Another goal was to, by making a connection between informal economy and the political choices of Serbian citizens; point out the fact that the revolts occurring over the past two decades were mainly motivated by political and not economic reasons as would be expected. This is especially relevant, keeping in mind the catastrophic economic situation in the country which is often emphasized in public discourse, and taking into account the different events and parameters – starting with the hyperinflation in the first half of the 90’s, international sanctions, the increase in public spending on the part of all the regimes that had been in power, great budget deficits and national debt, up to and including the lack of much needed economic reform. Given all this, it is confounding that economic reasons do not cause the people to revolt, unless, we look to the informal economy which allows a significant number of Serbian citizens to have a more comfortable existence than public data suggests.
format	article
author	Ivan Kovačević Dragana Antonijević
author_facet	Ivan Kovačević Dragana Antonijević
author_sort	Ivan Kovačević
title	An Essay on the Anthropology of Underground Economy: The Economic Behavior of the Tenants of a Building in Dorcol
title_short	An Essay on the Anthropology of Underground Economy: The Economic Behavior of the Tenants of a Building in Dorcol
title_full	An Essay on the Anthropology of Underground Economy: The Economic Behavior of the Tenants of a Building in Dorcol
title_fullStr	An Essay on the Anthropology of Underground Economy: The Economic Behavior of the Tenants of a Building in Dorcol
title_full_unstemmed	An Essay on the Anthropology of Underground Economy: The Economic Behavior of the Tenants of a Building in Dorcol
title_sort	essay on the anthropology of underground economy: the economic behavior of the tenants of a building in dorcol
publisher	University of Belgrade
publishDate	2016
url	https://doaj.org/article/33167ebc95f44f028b0c9514100a9ac7
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An Essay on the Anthropology of Underground Economy: The Economic Behavior of the Tenants of a Building in Dorcol

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