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When do severe sanctions enhance compliance? The role of procedural fairness

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  • Verboon, Peter
  • van Dijke, Marius

Abstract

Building on theoretical notions that severe sanctions (more than mild ones) can communicate that sanctioned behavior is morally unacceptable, we argued that particularly authorities who enact the sanction procedures in a fair manner stimulate compliance with their decisions. This is because such authorities should be considered legitimate to communicate what is morally acceptable and unacceptable. This interactive effect of sanction size and procedural fairness on compliance should thus be mediated by moral evaluations of the authority. A field survey and an experiment revealed support for these predictions. These results thus support a non-instrumental perspective on the effectiveness of sanction severity in increasing compliance with authorities.

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  • Verboon, Peter & van Dijke, Marius, 2011. "When do severe sanctions enhance compliance? The role of procedural fairness," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 120-130, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:32:y:2011:i:1:p:120-130
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    9. Laetitia B. Mulder, 2018. "When sanctions convey moral norms," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 331-342, December.
    10. Hartmann, Andre J. & Gangl, Katharina & Kasper, Matthias & Kirchler, Erich & Kocher, Martin G. & Mueller, Martin & Sonntag, Axel, 2022. "The economic crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic has a negative effect on tax compliance: Results from a scenario study in Austria," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
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    13. Warren, Danielle E. & Schweitzer, Maurice E., 2021. "When weak sanctioning systems work: Evidence from auto insurance industry fraud investigations," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 68-83.
    14. Siglé, Maarten A. & Goslinga, Sjoerd & Speklé, Roland F. & van der Hel, Lisette E.C.J.M., 2022. "The cooperative approach to corporate tax compliance: An empirical assessment," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
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