Political Alignment, Attitudes Toward Government and Tax Evasion / Julie Berry Cullen, Nicholas Turner, Ebonya L. Washington.

By:

Cullen, Julie Berry

Contributor(s):

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w24323.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

Online resources:

Available additional physical forms:

Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers

Abstract: We ask whether attitudes toward government play a causal role in the evasion of U.S. personal income taxes. We use individual-level survey data to demonstrate a link between sharing the party of the president and trust in the administration generally and opinions on taxation and spending policy, more specifically. Next, we move to the county level, and measure tax behavior as turnover elections push voters in partisan counties into and out of alignment with the party of the president. We provide three types of evidence that alignment reduces evasion. As a county moves into alignment we find 1) taxpayers report more easily-evaded forms of income; 2) suspect EITC claims decrease; and 3) audits triggered and audits found to owe additional tax decrease. Our results provide real-world evidence that a positive outlook on government lowers tax evasion.

Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w24323 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

Total holds: 0

Collection: Colección NBER Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)

Previous	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	No cover image available	Next
Previous	nber w24320 Global Portfolio Rebalancing and Exchange Rates /	nber w24321 Modeling Automation /	nber w24322 Finance and Business Cycles: The Credit-Driven Household Demand Channel /	nber w24323 Political Alignment, Attitudes Toward Government and Tax Evasion /	nber w24324 Linking Individuals Across Historical Sources: a Fully Automated Approach /	nber w24325 Uncertainty and Economic Activity: A Multi-Country Perspective /	nber w24326 Nonlinear Household Earnings Dynamics, Self-insurance, and Welfare /	Next

February 2018.

We ask whether attitudes toward government play a causal role in the evasion of U.S. personal income taxes. We use individual-level survey data to demonstrate a link between sharing the party of the president and trust in the administration generally and opinions on taxation and spending policy, more specifically. Next, we move to the county level, and measure tax behavior as turnover elections push voters in partisan counties into and out of alignment with the party of the president. We provide three types of evidence that alignment reduces evasion. As a county moves into alignment we find 1) taxpayers report more easily-evaded forms of income; 2) suspect EITC claims decrease; and 3) audits triggered and audits found to owe additional tax decrease. Our results provide real-world evidence that a positive outlook on government lowers tax evasion.