Tax Evasion and Social Information: an Experiment in Belgium, France and The Netherlands

Lefebvre, Mathieu; Villeval, Marie Claire; Pestieau, Pierre; Riedl, Arno

doi:10.1007/s10797-014-9318-z

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Tax Evasion and Social Information: an Experiment in Belgium, France and The Netherlands

Lefebvre, Mathieu; Villeval, Marie Claire; Pestieau, Pierre et al.

2015 • In International Tax and Public Finance, 22, p. 401–425

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/181071

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10.1007/s10797-014-9318-z

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Keywords :

· Social interactions ·; Tax evasion ·; Experiments

Abstract :

[en] We experimentally study how receiving information about tax compliance of others affects individuals’ occupational choices and subsequent evading decisions. In one treatment individuals receive information about the highest tax evasion rates of others in past experimental sessions with no such social information; in another treatment they receive information about the lowest tax evasion rates observed in the past sessions with no such social information. We observe an asymmetric effect of social information on tax compliance. Whereas examples of high compliance do not have any disciplining effect, we find evidence that examples of low compliance significantly increase tax evasion for certain audit probabilities. No major differences are found across countries

Disciplines :

Economic systems & public economics

Author, co-author :

Lefebvre, Mathieu ; Université de Liège > HEC Liège : UER > UER Economie

Villeval, Marie Claire

Pestieau, Pierre ; Université de Liège > HEC Liège > HEC Liège

Riedl, Arno

Language :

English

Title :

Tax Evasion and Social Information: an Experiment in Belgium, France and The Netherlands

Publication date :

2015

Journal title :

International Tax and Public Finance

ISSN :

0927-5940

eISSN :

1573-6970

Publisher :

Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands

Volume :

Pages :

401–425

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 15 June 2017

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113

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