Abstract:
Enhancing voluntary tax compliance is difficult in many low- and lower-middle-income countries where weak trust in state institutions undermines revenue collection. In a pre-registered lab-in-the-field experiment with small business owners in Dar es Salaam, par-ticipants received a fiscal exchange message together with a moral appeal either from a tax official or a religious leader. Voluntary tax compliance rose only with religious leaders, mainly via learning about fiscal exchange.
