Macroeconomic Determinants of Tax Avoidance and the Moderating Role of Public Governance

Indriyana Puspitosari, Hadri Kusuma and Johan Arifin

Economic Studies journal, 2026, issue 1, 20-37

Abstract: Tax avoidance refers to the implementation of a strategy by companies aimed at lowering their tax responsibilities. This research explores the impact of macroeconomic variables, namely the statutory tax rate, inflation, and policy uncertainty. This study integrates public governance as a moderating variable. The research focuses on non-financial firms sampled from five ASEAN countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. From the panel data regression analysis of 11,631 observations, it was found that the statutory tax rate, inflation, and policy uncertainty contribute to higher levels of corporate tax avoidance in five ASEAN countries. Moreover, the study shows that the presence of public governance moderates the relationship between corporate income tax rates, inflation, and policy uncertainty, thereby weakening corporate tax avoidance practices. The implications of this research are important for both companies and governments. For companies, the results suggest that policies should take into account both macroeconomic and institutional environments. For governments, strengthening institutional frameworks is essential to boosting tax revenue collection.

JEL-codes: D81 E31 H26 H71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://archive.econ-studies.iki.bas.bg/2026/2026_01/2026_01_02.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bas:econst:y:2026:i:1:p:20-37

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic Studies journal from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Diana Dimitrova ().