This microanalysis of the shadow economy is on informal family income achieving strategies. In particular we analyze both sexes' paid illicit work as well as unpaid work in household production based on the representative West German Sfb3–Secondary Occupation Survey 1984. We estimate the influence of various socioeconomic variables including a legal occupation. As a result, illicit work and household production “Do‐It‐Yourself” activities are important informal family income achieving strategies. The respective regional state of the formal economy or one's own activities in social networks is of greater importance for informal economic activities than an individual income from formal economic activities. Copyright © 1993, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved