Higher taxes, more evasion? Evidence from border differentials in TV license fees

Melissa Berger, Gerlinde Fellner-Röhling (), Rupert Sausgruber and Christian Traxler

Journal of Public Economics, 2016, vol. 135, issue C, 74-86

Abstract: This paper studies the evasion of TV license fees in Austria. We exploit border differentials to identify the effect of fees on evasion. Comparing municipalities at the low- and high-fee side of state borders reveals that higher fees trigger significantly more evasion. Our preferred estimator indicates that a one percent increase in fees raises the evasion rate by 0.3 percentage points. The positive effect of fees on evasion is confirmed in different parametric and non-parametric approaches and survives several robustness checks.

Keywords: Evasion; TV license fees; Border tax differentials; Regression discontinuity design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H26 H27 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Higher Taxes, More Evasion? Evidence from Border Differentials in TV License Fees (2015)
Working Paper: Higher taxes, more evasion? Evidence from border differentials in TV license fees (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:135:y:2016:i:c:p:74-86

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.01.007

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