Does Negative News Create Tax Evaders? Evidence from a Tax Compliance Experiment
Does Negative News Create Tax Evaders? Evidence from a Tax Compliance Experiment

Author(s): Jiří Špalek, Otto Eibl, Zuzana Špačková, Jozef Zagrapan, Miloš Fišar
Subject(s): Media studies, Government/Political systems, Evaluation research, Fiscal Politics / Budgeting
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: experiment; tax; compliance; evasion; media; framing;
Summary/Abstract: Tax evasion is perceived as one of the main problems of public finance. People tend to avoid paying taxes if they do not recognise a return in the form of public goods provided by the state or local government. The rate of tax compliance might also be affected by external factors such as the media, which hold great power over public opinion. We conducted a laboratory experiment to study whether the framing of the effectiveness of state spending influenced the decision to pay taxes. Subjects read news headlines with information on how state institutions spend their budgets.

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