Public Attitudes Toward Corruption and Tax Evasion: Investigating the Role of Gender Over Time

In recent years the topics of illegal activities such as corruption or tax evasion have attracted a great deal of attention. However, there is still a lack of substantial empirical evidence about the determinants of compliance. The aim of this paper is to investigate empirically whether women are more willing to be compliant than men focusing on corruption and tax evasion and whether we observe (among women and in general) differences in attitudes among similar age groups in different time periods (cohort effect) or changing attitudes of the same cohorts over time (age effect). Method. Thus, this paper will use data from eight Western European countries from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey that span the period from 1981 to 1999. Results. The results reveal higher willingness to comply among women and an age rather than a cohort effect. Conclusions. Thus, our results are in line with previous studies that found strong gender differences but are not in line with the equality and role theory that would suggest a decrease of gender differences with greater equality of status between men and women over time.