Developing Alternative Frameworks for Explaining Tax Compliance

Over the last several decades, there has been a growing interest in theoretical, empirical, and experimental work on all aspects of tax compliance and tax evasion. The essays in this volume summarize the existing state of knowledge of tax compliance and tax evasion, present new thinking about this issue, and analyze the empirical relevance of these new perspectives. The original essays in this volume represent an attempt to provide a framework on compliance that moves beyond the economics-of-crime perspective, one that provides a more complete understanding of individual (and group) decisions, and one that is more consistent with empirical evidence. It is the insights of behavioural economics that provide much of the bases for these essays and the main theme running through this book is that the basic model of individual choice must be expanded, by introducing some aspects of behaviour or motivation considered explicitly by other social sciences.

Part 1: Introduction to the Volume 1. Developing Alternative Frameworks for Explaining Tax Compliance James Alm, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, and Benno Torgler Part 2: A Review and a Critique of the Existing Literature 2. Why Pay Taxes? A Review of Tax Compliance Decisions Erich Kirchler, Stephan Muehlbacher, Barbara Kastlunger, and Ingrid Wahl Part 3: Expanding the Standard Theory of Compliance 3. Tax Compliance: Social Norms, Culture and Endogeneity John Cullis, Philip Jones, and Alan Lewis 4. Vertical and Horizontal Reciprocity in a Theory of Taxpayer Compliance Jan Schnellenbach 5. Tax Evasion and the Psychological Tax Contract Lars P. Feld and Bruno S. Frey Part 4: Empirical Evidence on Financial Incentives 6. A Meta-Analysis of Incentive Effects in Tax Compliance Experiments Calvin Blackwell 7. Econometric Models for Multi-Stage Audit Processes: An Application to the IRS National Research Program Brian Erard and Jonathan S. Feinstein Part 5: Empirical Evidence on Governance 8. Tax Compliance, Tax Morale and Governance Quality Benno Torgler, Markus Schaffner, and Alison Macintyre 9. Tax Evasion, Corruption , and the Social Contract in Transition Eric Uslaner 10. Procedural Justice and the Regulation of Tax Compliance Behavior: The Moderating Role of Personal Norms Kristina Murphy Part 6: Case Studies 11. Tax Non-Compliance Among the Under-30s: Knowledge, Obligation or Skepticism? Valerie Braithwaite, Monika Reinhart, and Michael Smart 12. The Economic Psychology of Value Added Tax Compliance Paul Webley and Julie Ashby 13. Tax Evasion, the Informal Sector, and Tax Morale in LAC Countries James Alm and Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

James Alm is Professor of Economics at Georgia State University. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez is Professor of Economics at Georgia State University. Benno Torgler is Professor of Economics at Queensland University of Technology.