In recent years, there has been growing concern about the growth of what is called either 'bogus' or 'false' self-employment across many governments in Europe and beyond. I am interested to find out whether any research has been conducted on this issue.
The notion of sham contracting goes back quite few years at least in terms of the Australian building. I am currently supervising a masters thesis looking at this issue and subcontracting more generally - it wont be finished til mid next year. In the meantime some years back the US Govenment Accountabilty Office produced a report on determining who is an employer or phony contracting - it shouldnt be hard to locate - their reports are all online
Bogus self-employment’ encouraged by tax system, Tasc says
Tackling false (bogus) self employment
Not in the former Soviet economies as far as I know, it is not as pressing there. Most of these countries have a problem of false employment (when the person basically bribes the personnel manager to keep the record book at the factory and then migrates to Russia to work illegally). I am working on the paper on this at the moment. The only area bogus where self-employment exists is a black labour market in Russia (to a lesser degree in Kazakhstan) serving a growing community of illegal and irregular economic migrants. I will be looking into this problem after I finish the current article, will be happy to join forces with anyone interested.
search the web for a report by roberto pedersini for eurofound, best, m
Interposed entities in Australia are covered in my thesis 'Miners' Motivation'. The practice received a lot of attention in Australia in the 1980s. It might be worth a look at the thesis.