How does progressivity impact tax morale? Experimental evidence across developing countries

Christopher Hoy

Journal of Development Economics, 2025, vol. 172, issue C

Abstract: This paper examines how the progressivity of taxes and government transfers impacts tax morale through a randomized survey experiment with over 30,000 respondents across eight developing countries. Respondents increased (decreased) their tax morale when they received accurate information that taxes in their country are progressive (not progressive). These effects were predominantly driven by respondents in cases where the information they received was counter to their prior beliefs and/or consistent with their preferences. These results suggest changes in policies that increase (decrease) the progressivity of tax systems may also lead to increases (decreases) in tax compliance.

Keywords: Political economy; Public finance; Redistribution; Tax compliance; Randomized experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D91 H22 H23 H24 H26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:172:y:2025:i:c:s0304387824001470

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103398

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