This paper begins by contrasting the caricatures "homo and femina economicus" with "homo and femina realitus". Against this backdrop, the paper considers three "apparently falsified" empirical predictions of the standard expected utility model of individual decision-making concerning...

Five hundred and five Italian psychology and economics students took part in a tax compliance study testing the influence of detection rates (within subjects) and the between subjects variables of framing effects, instructions to behave instrumentally or not, degree choice and gender. The sample...

While neoclassical economic theory sheds insight into the way that audit rates and penalty rates interact when individuals decide to declare income for taxation, it predicts far lower levels of compliance than observed levels of compliance. This paper analyses experimental responses to explore a...

This paper sets out to consider individuals’ motivations to evade taxation. Experimental results indicate that individuals do not simply maximize pecuniary welfare. Their behaviour is consistent with the presence of a ‘spite effect’ when their perceptions are that enforcement variables are...