Dataset Information

"Willing to Pay?" Tax Compliance in Britain and Italy: An Experimental Analysis.

ABSTRACT: As shown by the recent crisis, tax evasion poses a significant problem for countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy. While these societies certainly possess weaker fiscal institutions as compared to other EU members, might broader cultural differences between northern and southern Europe also help to explain citizens' (un)willingness to pay their taxes? To address this question, we conduct laboratory experiments in the UK and Italy, two countries which straddle this North-South divide. Our design allows us to examine citizens' willingness to contribute to public goods via taxes while holding institutions constant. We report a surprising result: when faced with identical tax institutions, redistribution rules and audit probabilities, Italian participants are significantly more likely to comply than Britons. Overall, our findings cast doubt upon "culturalist" arguments that would attribute cross-country differences in tax compliance to the lack of morality amongst southern European taxpayers.

SUBMITTER: Zhang N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4769296 | biostudies-other | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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"Willing to Pay?" Tax Compliance in Britain and Italy: An Experimental Analysis.

Zhang Nan N Andrighetto Giulia G Ottone Stefania S Ponzano Ferruccio F Steinmo Sven S

PloS one 20160226 2

As shown by the recent crisis, tax evasion poses a significant problem for countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy. While these societies certainly possess weaker fiscal institutions as compared to other EU members, might broader cultural differences between northern and southern Europe also help to explain citizens' (un)willingness to pay their taxes? To address this question, we conduct laboratory experiments in the UK and Italy, two countries which straddle this North-South divide. Our desi ...[more]

PMID: 26919201

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Project description:ObjectivesTo understand attitudes towards infertility and willingness to pay (WTP) towards a publicly funded national assistive reproductive therapies (ART) programme.DesignAttitudes survey with dichotomous and open-ended WTP questions.SettingOnline survey administered in the USA, UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and China.Participants7945 respondents, analysed by country. Nordic respondents were pooled into a regionally representative sample.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPrimary outcome measures were proportion of sample agreeing with different infertility-related and ART-related value statements and supporting a monthly contribution to fund a national ART programme, expressed in local currency. Secondary outcome measure was maximum WTP.ResultsAcross the nationally representative samples, 75.5% of all respondents agreed with infertility as a medical condition and 82.3% and 83.7% with ART eligibility for anyone who has difficulty having a baby or a medical problem preventing them from having a baby, respectively. 56.4% of respondents supported a defined monthly contribution and 73.9% supported at least some additional contribution to fund a national ART programme. Overall, converting to euros, median maximum WTP was €3.00 and mean was €15.47 (95% CI 14.23 to 16.72) per month. Maximum WTP was highest in China and the USA and lowest in the European samples.ConclusionsThis large, multicountry survey extends our understanding of public attitudes towards infertility and fertility treatment beyond Europe. It finds evidence that a majority of the public in all sampled countries/regions views infertility as a treatable medical condition and supports the idea that all infertile individuals should have access to treatments that improve the chance of conception. There was also strong agreement with the idea that the desire for children is a basic human need. WTP questions showed that a majority of respondents supported a monthly contribution to fund a national ART programme, although there is some evidence of an acquiescence bias that may overstate support among specific samples.

Project description:BackgroundThe health impacts from traffic-related pollutants bring costs to society, which are often not reflected in market prices for transportation. We set out to simultaneously assess the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for traffic-related air pollution and noise effect on health, using a single measurement instrument and approach. We investigated the proportion and determinants of "protest vote/PV responses (people who were against valuing their health in terms of money)" and "don't know"/DK answers, and explored the effect of DK on the WTP distributions.MethodsWithin the framework of the EU-funded project INTARESE, we asked over 5,200 respondents in five European countries to state their WTP to avoid health effects from road traffic-related air pollution and noise in an open-ended web-based questionnaire. Determinants of PV and DK were studied by logistic regression using variables concerning socio-demographics, income, health and environmental concern, and risk perception.ResultsAbout 10% of the respondents indicated a PV response and between 47-56% of respondents gave DK responses. About one-third of PV respondents thought that costs should be included in transportation prices, i.e. the polluter should pay. Logistic regression analyses showed associations of PV and DK with several factors. In addition to social-demographic, economic and health factors known to affect WTP, environmental concern, awareness of health effects, respondent's ability to relax in polluted places, and their view on the government's role to reduce pollution and on policy to improve wellbeing, also affected the PV and DK response. An exploratory weighting and imputation exercise did not show substantial effects of DK on the WTP distribution.ConclusionsWith a proportion of about 50%, DK answers may be a more relevant issue affecting WTP than PV's. The likelihood to give PV and DK response were influenced by socio-demographic, economic and health factors, as well as environmental concerns and appreciation of environmental conditions and policies. In contested policy issues where actual policy may be based on WTP studies, PV and DK answers may indeed affect the outcome of the WTP study. PV and DK answers and their determinants therefore deserve further study in CV studies on environmental health effects.

Dataset Information

"Willing to Pay?" Tax Compliance in Britain and Italy: An Experimental Analysis.

Publications

"Willing to Pay?" Tax Compliance in Britain and Italy: An Experimental Analysis.

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