Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue : Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea

This paper studies the impact of “nudges” on taxpayers with varying tax compliance histories in Papua New Guinea. It presents the results from two population-wide randomized controlled trials in a setting that is characterized by low compliance rat...

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Main Authors:	Hoy, Christopher, McKenzie, Luke, Sinning, Mathias
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:	TAX COMPLIANCE TAX EVASION FIELD EXPERIMENT BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS REVENUE MOBILIZATION
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/481521612810264789/Improving-Tax-Compliance-without-Increasing-Revenue-Evidence-from-Population-Wide-Randomized-Controlled-Trials-in-Papua-New-Guinea http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35131

id	okr-10986-35131
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-351312022-09-20T00:10:15Z Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue : Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea Hoy, Christopher McKenzie, Luke Sinning, Mathias TAX COMPLIANCE TAX EVASION FIELD EXPERIMENT BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS REVENUE MOBILIZATION This paper studies the impact of “nudges” on taxpayers with varying tax compliance histories in Papua New Guinea. It presents the results from two population-wide randomized controlled trials in a setting that is characterized by low compliance rates and a lack of effective enforcement. The study tests the impact of text messages, flyers, and emails that remind taxpayers of declaration due dates and provide information about the public benefits of paying tax. The findings show that the treatments increased the number of tax declarations filed without increasing the amount of tax paid because the taxpayers who responded to the nudges were largely exempt from paying tax. This result is consistent across tax types, communication channels, and time periods. The findings also show that the treatments had no impact on previously non-filing taxpayers. Collectively, the results illustrate that taxpayers who face the lowest cost from complying are the most likely to respond to a nudge. 2021-02-11T17:47:55Z 2021-02-11T17:47:55Z 2021-02 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/481521612810264789/Improving-Tax-Compliance-without-Increasing-Revenue-Evidence-from-Population-Wide-Randomized-Controlled-Trials-in-Papua-New-Guinea http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35131 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9539 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 East Asia and Pacific Papua New Guinea
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	TAX COMPLIANCE TAX EVASION FIELD EXPERIMENT BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS REVENUE MOBILIZATION
spellingShingle	TAX COMPLIANCE TAX EVASION FIELD EXPERIMENT BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS REVENUE MOBILIZATION Hoy, Christopher McKenzie, Luke Sinning, Mathias Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue : Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea
geographic_facet	East Asia and Pacific Papua New Guinea
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9539
description	This paper studies the impact of “nudges” on taxpayers with varying tax compliance histories in Papua New Guinea. It presents the results from two population-wide randomized controlled trials in a setting that is characterized by low compliance rates and a lack of effective enforcement. The study tests the impact of text messages, flyers, and emails that remind taxpayers of declaration due dates and provide information about the public benefits of paying tax. The findings show that the treatments increased the number of tax declarations filed without increasing the amount of tax paid because the taxpayers who responded to the nudges were largely exempt from paying tax. This result is consistent across tax types, communication channels, and time periods. The findings also show that the treatments had no impact on previously non-filing taxpayers. Collectively, the results illustrate that taxpayers who face the lowest cost from complying are the most likely to respond to a nudge.
format	Working Paper
author	Hoy, Christopher McKenzie, Luke Sinning, Mathias
author_facet	Hoy, Christopher McKenzie, Luke Sinning, Mathias
author_sort	Hoy, Christopher
title	Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue : Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea
title_short	Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue : Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea
title_full	Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue : Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea
title_fullStr	Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue : Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea
title_full_unstemmed	Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue : Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea
title_sort	improving tax compliance without increasing revenue : evidence from population-wide randomized controlled trials in papua new guinea
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2021
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/481521612810264789/Improving-Tax-Compliance-without-Increasing-Revenue-Evidence-from-Population-Wide-Randomized-Controlled-Trials-in-Papua-New-Guinea http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35131
_version_	1764482389407432704

Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue : Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea

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