Knowledge Without Taxation? Experimental Evidence from a Tax Education Program

Anders Jensen, Nikhil Kumar and Konstantin Poensgen

No 36002, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: A property tax experiment in Ghana randomly provides tax education to property owners and frontline officials. The intervention raises tax knowledge, which spreads through social networks to untreated neighbors, but does not increase tax payments. Educated taxpayers and officials become more engaged in their interactions without developing more collaborative relationships. Taxpayers revise downward their beliefs about enforcement capacity and become more aware of legal ways to reduce their tax burden. Knowledge is a double-edged sword: it can stimulate citizens to engage with the tax system while exposing the state's limited capacity to enforce it.

JEL-codes: D83 H26 H31 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-11
Note: DEV PE
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