In almost all democratic national elections, an individual vote cannot change the election outcome. The fact that many individuals nevertheless participate voluntarily in such elections suggests that people do care about democracy as such. This experiment investigates the value of democratic...

Public choice theory in many ways provides a fruitful economic instrumentarium to be applied to the phenomena of internalization and globalization. International political economics offers much potential for the analysis of real and relevant aspects in international relationships. This paper...

In this paper we address the role of the veil of ignorance on work incentives and tax rates in a two-person real effort experiment. We find that effort levels decrease with a rise in tax rates. Tax revenues peak at intermediate tax rates of 50 percent to 65 percent, supporting the existence of a...

This paper contains an empirical analysis of income tax noncompliance in Switzerland, based on the standard model of tax evasion. Noncompliance is found to be positively related to the marginal tax burden and negatively to the probability of audit, though the latter impact is only weak. There is...

This paper assesses the relationship between institutions, output, and productivity when official output is corrected for the size of the shadow economy. Our results confirm the usual positive impact of institutional quality on official output and total factor productivity, and its negative...

Whether a country is able effectively to address collective action problems is a critical test of its ability to fulfill the demands of its citizens to their satisfaction. We study one particularly important collective action problem: the environment. Using a large panel dataset covering 25...

We analyze, both theoretically and empirically, the influence of direct democratic institutions on the size and development of shadow economies. Our model suggests that, as the extent of direct democracy increases, implemented fiscal policies more nearly reflect the preferences of citizens and...