What taxpayers, governments and tax economists do – and what they should do

Joel Slemrod

Fiscal Studies, 2024, vol. 45, issue 1, 7-19

Abstract: The distinction between positive economics – describing economic programmes, situations and conditions as they exist – and normative economics – prescribing policies – has a long history. It is an especially important distinction in public economics, which by its nature concerns the actions of government. In this essay, I consider how two relatively recent developments in tax economics alter, blur or at least complicate the classic distinctions between positive and normative economics. The two developments I address are the insights generated by the study of behavioural economics and increased attention to tax evasion and tax enforcement. I organise my thoughts by addressing how three sets of actors central to public finance actually behave and should behave – taxpayers, governments and tax economists. I argue that tax economics should take seriously the substantial presence of behavioural anomalies and tax evasion, and that it has already begun to do so. I suggest some directions this effort might profitably take.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12324

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:wly:fistud:v:45:y:2024:i:1:p:7-19

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Fiscal Studies from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().