How much for cash? Tackling the cash-in-hand culture in the European property and construction sector

The purpose 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. 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. This paper reveals the need for in-depth qualitative research to unravel consumers' complex and heterogeneous rationales for using this sphere. The implication is that changing the cost/benefit ratio confronting consumers when choosing to use the cash-in-hand economy is unlikely to be successful since cost is, in most cases, not their only rationale. Instead, attention needs to be given to improving the availability, speed, reliability and quality of formal sector provision and dealing with cash-in-hand work conducted for social and redistributive purposes. This paper refutes the assumption that goods and services are acquired from the cash-in-hand economy solely in order to save money.