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Future orientation and taxes: Evidence from big data

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  • Petutschnig, Matthias

Abstract

This paper analyses whether various aspects of a country’s tax system have a positive or negative influence on individuals’ attitudes towards the future. These attitudes are measured in an analysis of Google search queries derived from Google Trends, which allow constructing an online future-orientation index for a sample of 58 countries over a period of five years. The results of this analysis indicate that personal income taxes, capital gains taxes and value added taxes discourage future-oriented behavior. Corporate income taxes could positively influence a society’s degree of future orientation. This paper contributes to existing research in three ways: First, it expands the existing tax literature by providing evidence that taxes can influence very fundamental personal values, such as individuals’ general attitudes towards their future. Second, it contributes to a vast body of cross-cultural studies on future orientation by introducing tax law to that field of research. Third, by using internet search patterns the paper integrates these large, automatically gathered data sets into scientific tax research, thereby opening the possibility for further research opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • Petutschnig, Matthias, 2017. "Future orientation and taxes: Evidence from big data," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 14-31.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jiaata:v:29:y:2017:i:c:p:14-31
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intaccaudtax.2017.03.003
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    2. Orkhan Nadirov & Bruce Dehning, 2020. "Tax Progressivity and Entrepreneurial Dynamics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-21, April.
    3. Yuqian Zhang, 2023. "Using Google Trends to track the global interest in International Financial Reporting Standards: Evidence from big data," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 87-100, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Future orientation; Personal income tax; VAT; Capital gains tax; Google searches;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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