IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bofitp/bdp2000_006.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax evasion in a transition from socialism to capitalism: The psychology of the social contract

Author

Listed:
  • Vihanto, Martti

Abstract

In a common assumption of the economics of tax evasion, extending beyond the basic Allingham-Sandmo model, the choice of a taxpayer to evade taxes depends upon the perceived fairness of the tax system.The purpose of the paper is to provide a psychological foundation for this assumption by drawing on Hayek's theory of human behavior as a process of rule following.According to the main hypothesis, taxpayers are more compliant with tax laws to which they can in principle give their full consent.A social contract as a basis of tax policy may provide a potent means to combat tax evasion particularly in transition economies that have inherited a deep mistrust of the government from their socialist past.

Suggested Citation

  • Vihanto, Martti, 2000. "Tax evasion in a transition from socialism to capitalism: The psychology of the social contract," BOFIT Discussion Papers 6/2000, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofitp:bdp2000_006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/212473/1/bofit-dp2000-006.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frey, Bruno S. & Eichenberger, Reiner, 1994. "Economic incentives transform psychological anomalies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 215-234, March.
    2. Weigel, Russell H. & Hessing, Dick J. & Elffers, Henk, 1987. "Tax evasion research: A critical appraisal and theoretical model," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 215-235, June.
    3. Bruno S. Frey, 1992. "Tertium Datur: Pricing, Regulating and Intrinsic Motivation," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 161-184, May.
    4. Erard, Brian & Feinstein, Jonathan S, 1994. "The Role of Moral Sentiments and Audit Perceptions in Tax Compliance," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 49(Supplemen), pages 70-89.
    5. Myles, Gareth D. & Naylor, Robin A., 1996. "A model of tax evasion with group conformity and social customs," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 49-66, April.
    6. Porcano, Thomas M., 1988. "Correlates of tax evasion," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 47-67, March.
    7. Elffers, Henk & Hessing, Dick J., 1997. "Influencing the prospects of tax evasion," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(2-3), pages 289-304, April.
    8. Arthur T. Denzau & Douglass C. North, 1994. "Shared Mental Models: Ideologies and Institutions," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 3-31, February.
    9. Brennan,Geoffrey & Buchanan,James M., 2006. "The Power to Tax," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521027922, September.
    10. Mark Setterfield, 1997. "Should Economists Dispense with the Notion of Equilibrium?," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 47-76, September.
    11. James Alm & Gary H. McClelland & William D. Schulze, 1999. "Changing the Social Norm of Tax Compliance by Voting," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 141-171, May.
    12. Tanzi, Vito, 1999. "Uses and Abuses of Estimates of the Underground Economy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(456), pages 338-347, June.
    13. Vihanto, Martti, 1999. "Social Contract and Introspection. A Proposal for an Austrian Welfare Economics," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 5-24.
    14. Don Lavoie, 1992. "Glasnost and the Knowledge Problem: Rethinking Economic Democracy," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 11(3), pages 435-455, Winter.
    15. Allingham, Michael G. & Sandmo, Agnar, 1972. "Income tax evasion: a theoretical analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3-4), pages 323-338, November.
    16. Christine Fauvelle‐Aymar, 1999. "The Political and Tax Capacity of Government in Developing Countries," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 391-413, August.
    17. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226320625 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Musgrave, Richard A., 1992. "Social contract, taxation and the standing of deadweight loss," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 369-381, December.
    19. Sugden, Robert, 1984. "Reciprocity: The Supply of Public Goods through Voluntary Contributions," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(376), pages 772-787, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Vihanto, Martti, 2000. "Tax evasion in a transition from socialism to capitalism : The psychology of the social contract," BOFIT Discussion Papers 6/2000, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    2. repec:zbw:bofitp:2000_006 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Vihanto, Martti, 2003. "Tax evasion and the psychology of the social contract," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 111-125, May.
    4. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    5. Torgler, Benno, 2011. "Tax morale and compliance : review of evidence and case studies for Europe," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5922, The World Bank.
    6. Erich Kirchler & Boris Maciejovsky, "undated". "Steuermoral und Steuerhinterziehung," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2002-18, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group.
    7. Kirchler, Erich & Hoelzl, Erik & Wahl, Ingrid, 2008. "Enforced versus voluntary tax compliance: The "slippery slope" framework," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 210-225, April.
    8. Semjén, András, 2017. "Az adózói magatartás különféle magyarázatai [Various explanations for tax compliance]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 140-184.
    9. Traxler, Christian, 2010. "Social norms and conditional cooperative taxpayers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 89-103, March.
    10. Demirbag, Mehmet & Frecknall-Hughes, Jane & Glaister, Keith W. & Tatoglu, Ekrem, 2013. "Ethics and taxation: A cross-national comparison of UK and Turkish firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 100-111.
    11. Nigar Hashimzade & Gareth Myles, 2017. "Risk-based Audits in a Behavioral Model," Public Finance Review, , vol. 45(1), pages 140-165, January.
    12. Wilfried Anicet Kouamé, 2015. "Tax Morale and Trust in Public Institutions," Cahiers de recherche 15-14, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke, revised Oct 2017.
    13. Benno Torgler & Markus Schaffner & Alison Macintyre, 2007. "Tax Compliance, Tax Morale, and Governance Quality," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0727, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    14. Kirchler, Erich & Maciejovsky, Boris & Schneider, Friedrich, 2003. "Everyday representations of tax avoidance, tax evasion, and tax flight: Do legal differences matter?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 535-553, August.
    15. Diana Onu & Lynne Oats, 2018. "Tax Talk: An Exploration of Online Discussions Among Taxpayers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(4), pages 931-944, June.
    16. Benno Torgler & Markus Schaffner & Alison Macintyre, 2007. "Tax Compliance, Tax Morale and Governance Quality," CREMA Working Paper Series 2007-17, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    17. Friedrich Schneider & Erich Kirchler & Boris Maciejovsky, 2001. "Tax avoidance, tax evasion, and tax flight: Do legal differences matter?," Economics working papers 2001-04, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    18. Hashimzade, Nigar & Myles, Gareth D. & Page, Frank & Rablen, Matthew D., 2014. "Social networks and occupational choice: The endogenous formation of attitudes and beliefs about tax compliance," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 134-146.
    19. Calvet Christian, Roberta & Alm, James, 2014. "Empathy, sympathy, and tax compliance," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 62-82.
    20. Hashimzade, Nigar & Myles, Gareth D. & Rablen, Matthew D., 2016. "Predictive analytics and the targeting of audits," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 130-145.
    21. Friedrich Schneider & Dominik Enste, 1999. "Shadow Economies Around the World - Size, Causes, and Consequences," CESifo Working Paper Series 196, CESifo.

    More about this item

    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:zbw:bofitp:bdp2000_006. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bofitfi.html .

    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.