ABSTRACT
On a theoretical level, the underground economy - economic activities that are unrecorded in the official statistics and/or are unreported to the tax administration - is paradoxical. The underground economy is difficult to define neatly, which is most probably caused by the fact that the term itself 'connotes more than denotes'. The reasons for and conditions, in which the underground economy develops, the conceptualisation includes the dimensions: economic traditionalism; poverty; opportunism; and distrust of institutions. All four dimensions are negatively correlated with the perception of the non-legitimacy of the underground economy and therefore have a positive effect on its persistence or expansion. Analysis of economic traditionalism indicators largely confirms the hypothesis of cultural inertia. The only exception is the somewhat more positive attitude of the oldest age group towards wealth acquisition. The age group analysis reveals a problem which remained hidden in the cross-cultural analysis.
