Tax Evasion, Welfare Fraud, and "The Broken Windows" Effect: An Experiment in Belgium, France and the Netherlands

In a series of experiments conducted in Belgium (Wallonia and Flanders), France and the Netherlands, we compare behavior regarding tax evasion and welfare dodging, with and without information about others' behavior. Subjects have to decide between a "registered" income, the realization of which will be known to the tax authority for sure, and an "unregistered" income that will only be known with some probability. This unregistered income comes from self-employment in the Tax treatment and from black labor supplementing some unemployment compensation in the Welfare treatment. Subjects have the... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Lefebvre, Mathieu
Pestieau, Pierre
Riedl, Arno
Villeval, Marie Claire
Dokumenttyp: preprint
Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
Verlag/Hrsg.: HAL CCSD
Schlagwörter: tax evasion / social fraud / social comparisons / cross-country comparisons / experiments / JEL: H - Public Economics/H.H2 - Taxation / Subsidies / and Revenue/H.H2.H26 - Tax Evasion and Avoidance / JEL: H - Public Economics/H.H3 - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents/H.H3.H31 - Household / JEL: I - Health / Education / and Welfare/I.I3 - Welfare / Well-Being / and Poverty/I.I3.I38 - Government Policy • Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs / JEL: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods/C.C9 - Design of Experiments/C.C9.C91 - Laboratory / Individual Behavior / [SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29200111
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00948296

In a series of experiments conducted in Belgium (Wallonia and Flanders), France and the Netherlands, we compare behavior regarding tax evasion and welfare dodging, with and without information about others' behavior. Subjects have to decide between a "registered" income, the realization of which will be known to the tax authority for sure, and an "unregistered" income that will only be known with some probability. This unregistered income comes from self-employment in the Tax treatment and from black labor supplementing some unemployment compensation in the Welfare treatment. Subjects have then to decide on wether reporting their income or not, knowing the risk od detection. The results show that (i) individuals evade more in the Welfare treatment than in the Tax treatment ; (ii) many subjects choose and option that allows for tax evasion or welfare fraud but report their income honestly anyway ; (iii) examples of low compliance tend to increase tax evasion while examples of high compliance exert no influence ; (iv) tax evasion is more frequent in France and the Netherlands ; Wallons evade taxes less than Flemish. There is no cross-country difference in welfare dodging.