There is a growing interest in morale as a potential substitute for sanctions, encouraged by exerimental evidence that people's morale affect their economic decisions. I show that while morale may be a substitute for sanctions for each citizen, it is not a substitute in the market. In a model...

Using the example of the inheritance tax, this paper examines whether and how the strictness of tax compliance norms depends on the interrelation between tax objectives, tax design, and taxed behavior. Building on the literature on tax evasion, optimal inheritance taxation, family economics, and...

When do ex-ante beliefs about the values of others affect compliance and honesty? To answer this question, we conduct an experiment, in which subjects face repeated trade-offs between monetary gain and honesty. As a source of exogenous variation, half of the subjects were told that their choices...

We present the first randomized survey experiment in the context of tax compliance to assess the role of social norms and reciprocity for intrinsic tax morale. We find that participants in a social-norm treatment have lower tax morale relative to a control group while participants in a...

We present the first randomized survey experiment in the context of tax compliance to assess the role of social norms and reciprocity for intrinsic tax morale. We find that participants in a social-norm treatment have lower tax morale relative to a control group while participants in a...

This study aims to examine the role of social norms in increasing tax compliance. The traditional model of tax compliance predicts that audits and tax fines are the determinants of tax compliance. This study proposes that social norms would strengthen the effect of the economic factors (i.e.,...