Trickle Down Tax Morale : A Cross-Country Survey Experiment
Studies have encouraged pro-social behavior by experimentally manipulating people's views of what others like them tend to do (descriptive norms). These studies positively change behaviors, including charitable giving, littering, organ donatio...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/868051610551141811/Trickle-Down-Tax-Morale-A-Cross-Country-Survey-Experiment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35013 |
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okr-10986-350132022-09-20T00:10:12Z Trickle Down Tax Morale : A Cross-Country Survey Experiment Mellon, Jonathan Peixoto, Tiago Sjoberg, Fredrik M. Gauri, Varun TAXATION RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE TAX EVASION TAX AVOIDANCE TAX MORALE CROSS-NATIONAL EXPERIMENT TAX COMPLIANCE CORPORATE TAX RATE Studies have encouraged pro-social behavior by experimentally manipulating people's views of what others like them tend to do (descriptive norms). These studies positively change behaviors, including charitable giving, littering, organ donation, and tax compliance. This paper argues that these results may be explained by a tendency to reciprocate positive actions and avoid being taken advantage of. The descriptive norm account predicts that positively describing the behavior of ordinary people will be most effective at increasing citizens’ willingness to pay taxes, and messages describing the behavior of other groups should be less effective. However, reciprocity theory suggests that highlighting pro-social behavior by groups believed not to contribute their fair share, such as rich people, should be effective because it will reduce the subject's perception that they are being taken advantage of when they pay taxes. These theories are tested in an online experiment in Kenya, Australia, the United States, the Philippines, and South Africa. The findings show that the descriptive norms treatment is ineffective, while the rich people treatment significantly increases tax morale, supporting reciprocity theory. The findings suggest that tax agencies may increase tax compliance by visibly tackling tax avoidance among groups believed to avoid taxes, such as rich citizens. 2021-01-14T15:33:14Z 2021-01-14T15:33:14Z 2021-01 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/868051610551141811/Trickle-Down-Tax-Morale-A-Cross-Country-Survey-Experiment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35013 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9507 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) East Asia and Pacific Australia Kenya Philippines South Africa United States |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
TAXATION RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE TAX EVASION TAX AVOIDANCE TAX MORALE CROSS-NATIONAL EXPERIMENT TAX COMPLIANCE CORPORATE TAX RATE |
| spellingShingle |
TAXATION RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE TAX EVASION TAX AVOIDANCE TAX MORALE CROSS-NATIONAL EXPERIMENT TAX COMPLIANCE CORPORATE TAX RATE Mellon, Jonathan Peixoto, Tiago Sjoberg, Fredrik M. Gauri, Varun Trickle Down Tax Morale : A Cross-Country Survey Experiment |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) East Asia and Pacific Australia Kenya Philippines South Africa United States |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9507 |
| description |
Studies have encouraged pro-social
behavior by experimentally manipulating people's views
of what others like them tend to do (descriptive norms).
These studies positively change behaviors, including
charitable giving, littering, organ donation, and tax
compliance. This paper argues that these results may be
explained by a tendency to reciprocate positive actions and
avoid being taken advantage of. The descriptive norm account
predicts that positively describing the behavior of ordinary
people will be most effective at increasing citizens’
willingness to pay taxes, and messages describing the
behavior of other groups should be less effective. However,
reciprocity theory suggests that highlighting pro-social
behavior by groups believed not to contribute their fair
share, such as rich people, should be effective because it
will reduce the subject's perception that they are
being taken advantage of when they pay taxes. These theories
are tested in an online experiment in Kenya, Australia, the
United States, the Philippines, and South Africa. The
findings show that the descriptive norms treatment is
ineffective, while the rich people treatment significantly
increases tax morale, supporting reciprocity theory. The
findings suggest that tax agencies may increase tax
compliance by visibly tackling tax avoidance among groups
believed to avoid taxes, such as rich citizens. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Mellon, Jonathan Peixoto, Tiago Sjoberg, Fredrik M. Gauri, Varun |
| author_facet |
Mellon, Jonathan Peixoto, Tiago Sjoberg, Fredrik M. Gauri, Varun |
| author_sort |
Mellon, Jonathan |
| title |
Trickle Down Tax Morale : A Cross-Country Survey Experiment |
| title_short |
Trickle Down Tax Morale : A Cross-Country Survey Experiment |
| title_full |
Trickle Down Tax Morale : A Cross-Country Survey Experiment |
| title_fullStr |
Trickle Down Tax Morale : A Cross-Country Survey Experiment |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Trickle Down Tax Morale : A Cross-Country Survey Experiment |
| title_sort |
trickle down tax morale : a cross-country survey experiment |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/868051610551141811/Trickle-Down-Tax-Morale-A-Cross-Country-Survey-Experiment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35013 |
| _version_ |
1764482139313668096 |