How much for cash? the cash‐in‐hand culture in the European construction sector

What is it about?

The aim of this paper is to explain the cash-in-hand consumer culture in the property and construction sector. The conventional assumption has been that consumers using cash-in-hand transactions are rational economic actors doing so simply to save money. Here, this is evaluated critically.

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Why is it important?

To do this, evidence from a 2007 Eurobarometer survey involving 26,659 face-to-face interviews in 27 European Union member states is reported. The finding is that saving money is the sole motive of consumers in just 38 per cent of cash-in-hand transactions in the European property and construction sector, one of several rationales in 38 per cent of exchanges and not cited as a rationale in the remaining 24 per cent of cases. Besides saving money, consumers engage in cash-in-hand transactions to circumvent the shortcomings of formal sector provision in terms of its availability, speed and quality, as well as for social and redistributive rationales.

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