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Are taxes beautiful? A survey experiment on information, tax choice and perceived adequacy of the tax burden

Author

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  • Abbiati, Lorenzo
  • Antinyan, Armenak
  • Corazzini, Luca

Abstract

We report results from a survey experiment aimed at testing whether providing information on the national public expenditure to the taxpayers and whether involving them in the process of allocating tax revenues over public goods influence the level of the adequate tax rate - the fraction of income that individuals consider adequate to pay as taxes. We find that providing information on public expenditure does not influence the level of the adequate tax rate. On the contrary, the level of the adequate tax rate substantially increases when taxpayers can get to choose the public goods to finance through their taxation.

Suggested Citation

  • Abbiati, Lorenzo & Antinyan, Armenak & Corazzini, Luca, 2014. "Are taxes beautiful? A survey experiment on information, tax choice and perceived adequacy of the tax burden," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 02/2014, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:022014
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Casal, Sandro & Kogler, Christoph & Mittone, Luigi & Kirchler, Erich, 2016. "Tax compliance depends on voice of taxpayers," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 141-150.
    2. Lubomir Cingl & Tomas Lichard & Tomas Miklanek, 2022. "Mist Over a Meadow: Tax Designation Effects on Compliance," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp725, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    3. Cingl, Lubomír & Lichard, Tomáš & Miklánek, Tomáš, 2023. "Tax designation effects on compliance: An online experiment with taxpayers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 615-633.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax Choice; Adequate Tax Rate; Survey Experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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