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This paper fulfills a gap in the existing literature by analyzing the impact of government efficiency and corruption on the financial development of 31 OECD countries for the period 2002 to 2015 inclusively. To ensure robustness in our estimations, we employed several econometrics techniques, included control variables in our models, used several proxies for the variables under investigation, split the data into subgroups based on the degree of democracy, and repeated the analysis for these groups. Obtained findings provide strong evidence that government efficiency has a significant effect on financial development, and the sign of all the control variables are compatible with the a-priory theoretical expectations. The results of this study propose several policy recommendations to enhance financial development such as enhancing social cohesion through education on the use of tax contributions, revising budget procedures to ensure efficient spending of resources and to improve institutional quality, and reducing corruptive pursuits by targeting the informal economy activities and modifying the rule of law.

This study explores the influence of financial development on the shadow economy, alongside other possible determinants, for the CESEE region. To this objective, we used a panel dataset of annual figures for eleven CESEE countries from 2003 to 2019. To estimate the long-run coefficients, panel FMOLS and DOLS were employed. Our findings suggest that an increase in financial development and tax burden leads to the enlargement of the shadow economy. While improvements in institutional quality, trade openness, and economic freedom reduce the magnitude of the shadow economy. The study's results offer various policy recommendations that can be used to combat the shadow economy in CESEE countries. Tax policy and institutional reforms are encouraged to promote greater trust within institutions, enabling the shift of economic activities from the shadow to the formal economy.