Economic Behaviour and Taxation

Over several decades there have been major changes to the way public economists investigate behavioural responses to taxation. This includes areas such as the supply of labour, charitable giving, savings, capital gains realisations, mobility, bequests, family structure, reported income and tax evasion. Recent research has utilised new data sets and applied new empirical methods, including laboratory experiments, natural field experiments and controlled field experiments. Other disciplines, especially psychology, are increasingly contributing to the application of behavioural (or cognitive) economics, but the lessons from this work are unevenly disseminated. This important volume brings together the most important scholarly articles on how taxes affect individual behaviour, highlighting current knowledge on behavioural responses to taxation, new thinking about the relevant issues and analysis of useful policy options.