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Shadow Economy, Tax Morale, Governance and Institutional Quality: A Panel Analysis

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Author Info
Benno Torgler
Friedrich Schneider

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Abstract

This paper analyses how governance or institutional quality and tax morale affect the shadow economy, using an international country panel and also within country data. The literature strongly emphasizes the quantitative importance of these factors to understand the level and changes of shadow economy. However, the limited number of investigations use cross-sectional country data with a relatively small number of observations, and hardly any paper has investigated tax morale and provides evidence using within country data. Using more than 25 proxies that measure governance and institutional quality we find strong support that its increase leads to a smaller shadow economy. Moreover, an increase in tax morale reduces the size of the shadow economy.

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Paper provided by School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology in its series School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series with number 210.

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Length: 64
Date of creation: 01 Feb 2007
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Handle: RePEc:qut:dpaper:210

Note: The School of Economics and Finance, Level 8, Z Block, Gardens Point Campus, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia, email: benno.torgler@qut.edu.au. ** Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, A-4040 Linz-Auhof, Austria. E-mail: friedrich.schneider@jku.at, http://www.econ.jku.at/Schneider. Both are research fellows of CREMA – Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts, Switzerland. We would like to thank Howard Abrams, Doris Aebi, Robert Cooter, Jesse Fried, John McNulty, Eric Talley, Luciano Benetti Timm and participants of the Law and Economics Workshop at UC Berkeley and the 2006 National Tax Association Conference in Boston for helpful comments and suggestions. Financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
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Related research
Keywords: Shadow economy; tax morale; governance quality; government intervention; corruption;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy-Making and Implementation
H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion
O17 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
O5 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Benno Torgler & Friedrich Schneider & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2009. "Local Autonomy, Tax Morale and the Shadow Economy," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 243, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Schneider, Friedrich, 2008. "The Shadow Economy in Germany - A Blessing or a Curse for the Official Economy?," Economic Analysis and Policy (EAP), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), School of Economics and Finance, vol. 38(1), pages 89-111, March. [Downloadable!]
  3. Torgler, Benno & Demir, Ihsan C. & Macintyre, Alison & Schaffner, Markus, 2008. "Causes and Consequences of Tax Morale: An Empirical Investigation," Economic Analysis and Policy (EAP), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), School of Economics and Finance, vol. 38(2), pages 313-339, September. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Bird, Richard M. & Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge & Torgler, Benno, 2008. "Tax Effort in Developing Countries and High Income Countries: The Impact of Corruption, Voice and Accountability," Economic Analysis and Policy (EAP), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), School of Economics and Finance, vol. 38(1), pages 55-71, March. [Downloadable!]
  5. Johanna D'Hernoncourt & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2008. "The not so dark side of trust: Does trust increase the size of the shadow economy?," Working Papers CEB 08-030.RS, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB). [Downloadable!]
  6. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Benno Torgler, 2007. "The Evolution of Tax Morale in Modern Spain," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 224, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology, revised 12 Aug 2008. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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