This paper evaluates the relative importance of labor productivity vs. income taxes and social security contributions for tax compliance in an economy with a large degree of informality. To this end, we build a bargaining model in which matched employer-employee pairs of heterogeneous productive...

The austerity plans implemented in Greece in 2010 have yielded lower than expected increases in tax receipts. We argue that this has been the result of the arbitrage that firms face when choosing to declare their activity. A tax hike has a direct effect on the degree of tax evasion, and an...

Does whistleblowing deter rule violations when such violations are believed to be common? We examine this question in an online experiment about collaborative tax evasion. We vary whether subjects can blow the whistle on their partner in crime and introduce a high-evasion environment by framing...

Business income is systematically underreported and accounts for a sizeable share of the US tax gap. In this paper, I examine the importance of tax evasion in the entrepreneurial sector for the effects of tax reforms. In particular, I analyze the long-run effects of switching from a progressive...

Tax evasion has probably existed ever since the first tax was imposed. But tax evasion - the illegal nonpayment of taxes - is not equally widespread. It is more prevalent in some countries than others. There are several reasons for this lack of homogeneity across time and cultures. Many studies...

We propose a model that captures tax avoidance as an investment under uncertainty: searching for tax loopholes or developing legal avoidance schemes is associated with costs; the tax benefit is however uncertain. Its height depends on whether or not the tax agency agrees with the chosen...

This study investigates the contagious nature of tax avoidance by examining how narratives affect tax avoiding behavior. We adapt the idea of narrative economics indicating that individuals' actions are stimulated by stories that spread within a society. We employ two types of infection models...

Many countries apply lower fines to tax evading individuals when they voluntarily disclose the tax evasion they committed. I model such voluntary disclosure mechanisms theoretically and show that while such mechanisms increase the incentive to evade taxes, they nevertheless increase tax revenues...

To determine the full effects of taxation on income distribution, policymakers need to consider the impacts of tax evasion. In the standard analysis of tax evasion, all the benefits are assumed to accrue to tax evaders. But tax evasion has other impacts that determine its true effects. As...

In recent years tax authorities worldwide have implemented voluntary disclosure schemes to recover tax on offshore investments. Such Schemes are characterized by the acquisition of non-audit information on offshore holdings, and a subsequent opportunity for affected taxpayers to make a voluntary...