IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v66y2020icp250-261.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public debt games with corruption and tax evasion

Author

Listed:
  • Halkos, George E.
  • Papageorgiou, George J.
  • Halkos, Emmanuel G.
  • Papageorgiou, John G.

Abstract

This study explores the interactions between corruption, tax evasion, and public debt. Public debt accumulation results in disutility, therefore the key issue is whether the time path of the public debt is sustainable or not. Infinite time differential game modeling is used as an appropriate tool for the economic analysis of the sustainability of the time path. The dynamic game is a simple one, and incorporates the well known assumption that the starting point of the public debt model is the accounting identity interrelating public debt, the interest rate and the real government surplus exclusive of interest payments on public debt. In this setting, we consider as stock the public debt and the stress of the regulator as the driver in raising the nation’s primary surplus. Any surplus increase is not only dependent on government measures but is also dependent on the known “culture of corruption” and on tax evasion. Consequently, the process of surpluses’ augmentation should be a function of these two factors. Nash and Stackelberg differential game are used to explore strategic interactions. In the Nash equilibrium, establishment of cyclical strategies during the game between the group of people involved in illegal activities of corruption and tax evasion on the one hand and the government in the other, requires that the discount rate of the group of people involved in illegal actions must be greater than the government’s discount rate. That is, the group of corrupt officials and tax evaders must be more impatient than the government. In the case of hierarchical setting analytical expressions of the strategies and the steady-state value of public debt are provided. Furthermore, a number of propositions are stated.

Suggested Citation

  • Halkos, George E. & Papageorgiou, George J. & Halkos, Emmanuel G. & Papageorgiou, John G., 2020. "Public debt games with corruption and tax evasion," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 250-261.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:66:y:2020:i:c:p:250-261
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2020.04.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592620301557
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2020.04.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maksym Ivanyna & Alexandros Moumouras & Peter Rangazas, 2016. "The Culture Of Corruption, Tax Evasion, And Economic Growth," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(1), pages 520-542, January.
    2. Toke S. Aidt, 2009. "Corruption, institutions, and economic development," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 25(2), pages 271-291, Summer.
    3. Avinash Dixit, 1979. "A Model of Duopoly Suggesting a Theory of Entry Barriers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 20-32, Spring.
    4. Chi Keung Marco Lau & Fu Steve Yang & Zhe Zhang & Vincent K. K. Leung, 2015. "Determinants Of Innovative Activities: Evidence From Europe And Central Asia Region," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 60(01), pages 1-18.
    5. Skiba, A K, 1978. "Optimal Growth with a Convex-Concave Production Function," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(3), pages 527-539, May.
    6. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 1999. "The Quality of Government," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 222-279, April.
    7. Halkos, George, 2011. "Prevention of stock accumulation by restricting polluters’ resources," MPRA Paper 30466, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Cooray, Arusha & Dzhumashev, Ratbek & Schneider, Friedrich, 2017. "How Does Corruption Affect Public Debt? An Empirical Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 115-127.
    9. Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 1-11, February.
    10. Raul A. Barreto & James Alm, 2003. "Corruption, Optimal Taxation, and Growth," Public Finance Review, , vol. 31(3), pages 207-240, May.
    11. George, Halkos E. & George, Papageorgiou J. & Emmanuel, Halkos G. & John, Papageorgiou G., 2019. "Environmental regulation and economic cycles," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 172-177.
    12. Petrohilos-Andrianos, Yannis & Xepapadeas, Anastasios, 2017. "Resource harvesting regulation and enforcement: An evolutionary approach," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 236-253.
    13. Xepapadeas, A. P., 1992. "Environmental policy design and dynamic nonpoint-source pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 22-39, July.
    14. Pierre-Guillaume Méon & Khalid Sekkat, 2005. "Does corruption grease or sand the wheels of growth?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 69-97, January.
    15. d'Aspremont, C & Gabszewicz, Jean Jaskold & Thisse, J-F, 1979. "On Hotelling's "Stability in Competition"," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(5), pages 1145-1150, September.
    16. Halkos, George, 2011. "Cyclical and constant strategies in renewable resources extraction," MPRA Paper 34654, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Dzhumashev, Ratbek, 2014. "Corruption and growth: The role of governance, public spending, and economic development," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 202-215.
    18. Forster, Bruce A., 1980. "Optimal energy use in a polluted environment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 321-333, December.
    19. De Rosa, Donato & Gooroochurn, Nishaal & Görg, Holger, 2010. "Corruption and productivity firm-level evidence from the BEEPS survey," Kiel Working Papers 1632, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. Mamada, Robert & Perrings, Charles, 2020. "The effect of emission charges on output and emissions in dynamic Cournot duopoly," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 370-380.
    21. Engelbert Dockner & Gustav Feichtinger, 1991. "On the optimality of limit cycles in dynamic economic systems," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 31-50, February.
    22. Mo, Pak Hung, 2001. "Corruption and Economic Growth," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 66-79, March.
    23. Jaskold Gabszewicz, J. & Thisse, J. -F., 1979. "Price competition, quality and income disparities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 340-359, June.
    24. A. Prskawetz, 1998. "Government Debt, Budget Surplus, and Popularity of Politicians," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 131-149, July.
    25. Brunetti, Aymo, 1998. "Policy volatility and economic growth: A comparative, empirical analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 35-52, February.
    26. Friedrich Schneider & Andreas Buehn & Claudio Montenegro, 2010. "New Estimates for the Shadow Economies all over the World," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 443-461.
    27. Alfred Greiner & Bettina Fincke, 2009. "Public Debt and Economic Growth," Dynamic Modeling and Econometrics in Economics and Finance, Springer, number 978-3-642-01745-2, May.
    28. Edgardo Campos, J. & Lien, Donald & Pradhan, Sanjay, 1999. "The Impact of Corruption on Investment: Predictability Matters," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1059-1067, June.
    29. Colacchio, Giorgio, 2014. "Taxation, income redistribution and debt dynamics in a seven-equation model of the business cycle," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 140-165.
    30. Huong Vu & Tuyen Quang Tran & Tuan Nguyen & Steven Lim, 2018. "Corruption, Types of Corruption and Firm Financial Performance: New Evidence from a Transitional Economy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(4), pages 847-858, April.
    31. Mauro, Paolo, 1998. "Corruption and the composition of government expenditure," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 263-279, June.
    32. Manfredi, Piero & Fanti, Luciano, 2004. "Cycles in dynamic economic modelling," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 573-594, May.
    33. Etro, Federico, 2017. "Research in economics and game theory. A 70th anniversary," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 1-7.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lau, Evan & Moll de Alba, Jaime & Liew, Kim-Hing, 2022. "Debt and economic growth in Asian developing countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 599-612.
    2. Thi Anh Nhu Nguyen & Thi Thuy Huong Luong, 2021. "Fiscal Policy, Institutional Quality, and Public Debt: Evidence from Transition Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-15, September.
    3. PETRAȘCU Daniela & CIOCANEA Bianca Cristina & PIȚU Ioan Cosmin, 2021. "Tax Evasion- Corrosive Factor for the National Economy," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    4. Mingyao Cao & Keyi Duan & Haslindar Ibrahim, 2023. "Local Government Debt and Its Impact on Corporate Underinvestment and ESG Performance: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-18, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cooray, Arusha & Dzhumashev, Ratbek & Schneider, Friedrich, 2017. "How Does Corruption Affect Public Debt? An Empirical Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 115-127.
    2. Eunji Kim & Yoonhee Ha & Sangheon Kim, 2017. "Public Debt, Corruption and Sustainable Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-30, March.
    3. Tran, My Thi Ha, 2021. "Public Sector Management And Corruption In Asean Plus Six," OSF Preprints stxw4, Center for Open Science.
    4. Halkos, George & Papageorgiou, George, 2017. "Public debt, pollution and environmental taxes: Nash and Stackelberg equilibria," MPRA Paper 81982, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Cooray, Arusha & Dzhumashev, Ratbek, 2018. "The effect of corruption on labour market outcomes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 207-218.
    6. Halkos, George & Papageorgiou, George, 2017. "Public debt, corruption and tax evasion: Nash and Stackelberg equilibria," MPRA Paper 77519, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Halkos, George E. & Papageorgiou, George J., 2018. "Pollution, environmental taxes and public debt: A game theory setup," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 111-120.
    8. repec:pdn:wpaper:79 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. repec:pdn:wpaper:70 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Keneck-Massil, Joseph & Nomo-Beyala, Clery & Owoundi, Ferdinand, 2021. "The corruption and income inequality puzzle: Does political power distribution matter?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    11. Alfredo Monte & Luca Pennacchio, 2020. "Corruption, Government Expenditure and Public Debt in OECD Countries," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 62(4), pages 739-771, December.
    12. Harouna Sedgo & Luc Désiré Omgba, 2023. "Corruption and distortion of public expenditures: evidence from Africa," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(2), pages 419-452, April.
    13. Bienvenido Ortega & Antonio Casquero & Jesús Sanjuán, 2016. "Corruption and Convergence in Human Development: Evidence from 69 Countries During 1990–2012," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 691-719, June.
    14. PETRAȘCU Daniela & CIOCANEA Bianca Cristina & PIȚU Ioan Cosmin, 2021. "Tax Evasion- Corrosive Factor for the National Economy," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    15. Eugen Dimant & Guglielmo Tosato, 2018. "Causes And Effects Of Corruption: What Has Past Decade'S Empirical Research Taught Us? A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 335-356, April.
    16. Ahmed, Walid M.A., 2020. "Corruption and equity market performance: International comparative evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    17. Bin Dong & Benno Torgler, 2010. "The Consequences of Corruption: Evidence from China," Working Papers 2010.73, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    18. António Afonso & Eduardo Sá Fortes Leitão Rodrigues, 2022. "Corruption and economic growth: does the size of the government matter?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 543-576, May.
    19. Blaise Gnimassoun, Joseph Keneck Massil, 2019. "Determinants of corruption: can we put all countries in the same basket?," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 16(2), pages 239-276, December.
    20. Blaise Gnimassoun & Joseph Keneck Massil, 2016. "Determinants of corruption: Can we put all countries in the same basket?," Working Papers hal-04141599, HAL.
    21. Fhima, Fredj & Nouira, Ridha & Sekkat, Khalid, 2023. "How does corruption affect sustainable development? A threshold non-linear analysis," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 505-523.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public debt; Tax evasion; Dynamic games; Nash equilibrium; Stackelberg equilibrium;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • H62 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Deficit; Surplus
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:66:y:2020:i:c:p:250-261. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.