• Login
    View Item 
    •   OpenDocs Home
    • Institute of Development Studies Research Repository
    • International Centre for Tax and Development
    • International Centre for Tax and Development
    • View Item
    •   OpenDocs Home
    • Institute of Development Studies Research Repository
    • International Centre for Tax and Development
    • International Centre for Tax and Development
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Income Tax Payers Are Not All the Same – A Behavioral Letter Experiment in Eswatini

    Thumbnail
    Date
    2022-08
    Author
    Santoro, Fabrizio
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Impact
    Abstract
    Very little is known about why taxpayers in sub-Saharan Africa pay their taxes. This article reports results from a nationwide randomized controlled trial in Eswatini, nudging more than 20,000 income tax payers with behaviorally-informed mailings, building on deterrence, facilitation, and trust paradigms. This study is the first to target three different categories of taxpayers at the same time – non-filers, nil-filers and active filers, and targets both companies and individual taxpayers. Most of the literature focuses on active filers. The results show that nudging is very effective with non-filers, especially when controlling for actual collection of the letter – any mailing increases the probability of filing by 1.7 percentage points (p.p.), or 20 percent of the control group mean. Deterrence is particularly effective for non-filing companies – increasing filing by 3.9 p.p., whereas individuals react more to an instructional nudge. Conversely, nil-filers do not respond to a nudge. A trust-based mailing had the opposite of the intended effect with active taxpayers, but they are less likely to nil-file when nudged.
    URI
    https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17626
    Citation
    Santoro, F. (2022) 'Income Tax Payers Are Not All the Same – A Behavioral Letter Experiment in Eswatini', Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 70, Number 4, DOI: 10.1086/722332
    DOI
    10.1086/722332
    Is part of series
    Economic Development and Cultural Change;Volume 70, Number 4
    More details
    https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/722332
    Rights holder
    © The University of Chicago
    Rights details
    https://www.ids.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Latest_IDSOpenDocs_ExternalDocuments2020.pdf
    Collections
    • International Centre for Tax and Development [386]

    About OpenDocs | OpenDocs Policy | Help | Contact Us | Send Feedback | Disclaimer and Cookies
     

     

    Browse

    All of OpenDocsCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    About OpenDocs | OpenDocs Policy | Help | Contact Us | Send Feedback | Disclaimer and Cookies