Stef Adriaenssens

Street-level Informal Economic Activities: Estimating the Yield of Begging in Brussels

This article develops and applies a method to estimate the revenues of beggars in Brussels. This is relevant for three reasons. First, in the literature on the informal economy, we lack reliable empirical knowledge of informal street-level activities like begging, substantiating the expectation that beggars’ income will be low. Secondly, popular representation of beggars often depicts them as criminal and wealthy. Finally, recent legislation builds on the idea of criminal organisations behind beggars. Building on an analysis of existing attempts to measure beggars’ income, we aim for a triangulation with data from three different sources: observation, self-reports and quasi-experimental observations. This triangulation allows for more reliable and valid conclusions. Hypotheses based upon popular images and the criminalisation of begging are dismissed. The evidence does support the hypothesis based upon the literature on informal activities.

Calculating Value Added of Prostitution with Multiple Data: A New Approach for Belgium

Economic output implies that underground sectors such as prostitution are taken into account. This article presents an innovative methodology to measure turnover and added value in prostitution based on a combination of observational and Internet data. The method is applied to Belgium. Turnover is broken down in transactions and price per segment. The starting point is an observation-based measure of turnover in one locational and visible segment of the market: window prostitution. Fundamental differences between segments make linear generalizations from one segment invalid. Therefore, we estimate the relative size of transactions in other segments (such as brothels or escort) with Internet data. In combination with measures of average price per transaction, a consolidated estimate of turnover in prostitution in Belgium is measured. Estimates of nonresident production are based on data on sex workers’ country of origin. Several bootstrap replications allow for robustness checks of the delta-based standard errors.