Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/34371 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 3103
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The economic models of tax compliance predict that individuals should evade taxes when the expected benefit of cheating is greater than its expected cost. When this condition is fulfilled, the high compliance however observed remains a puzzle. In this paper, we investigate the role of emotions as a possible explanation of tax compliance. Our laboratory experiment shows that emotional arousal, measured by Skin Conductance Responses, increases in the proportion of evaded taxes. The perspective of punishment after an audit, especially when the pictures of the evaders are publicly displayed, also raises emotions. We show that an audit policy that induces shame on the evaders favors compliance.
Subjects: 
Tax evasion
emotions
neuro-economics
physiological measures
shame
experiments
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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