IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fan/spespe/vhtml10.3280-spe2013-002004.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Relevance of the Theory of Fiscal Illusion. The Case of the Italian Tax System

Author

Listed:
  • Roberto Dell'Anno
  • Vincenzo Maria De Rosa

Abstract

This work analyses the phenomenon of fiscal illusion (Puviani, 1903) in the context of the Italian tax system. Financial (or fiscal) illusion refers to mechanisms which cause a cognitive alteration on the part of the taxpayer regarding the evaluation of the costs and benefits of public policies. Puviani (1903) was the first to classify the different types of financial illusions. He highlighted the main strategies used to hide the real costs of financing public goods and services through taxes (illusions on revenue) or to overestimate their usefulness (illusions on expenditure). The main conclusions of the work are that: (i) from a methodological point of view, there is a connection between Puviani?s theory of fiscal illusion and some of the assumptions of the behavioral approach and (ii) from an operational point of view, it is a useful tool to understand the motives that could have inspired several recent taxes and legislative measures within the Italian tax system. These results support the relevance of Puviani?s theory to the contemporary theory and practice of public finance.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberto Dell'Anno & Vincenzo Maria De Rosa, 2013. "The Relevance of the Theory of Fiscal Illusion. The Case of the Italian Tax System," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(2), pages 63-92.
    • Handle: RePEc:fan:spespe:v:html10.3280/spe2013-002004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=49480&Tipo=ArticoloPDF
    Download Restriction: Single articles can be downloaded buying download credits, for info: https://www.francoangeli.it/DownloadCredit
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alm, James, 2010. "Testing Behavioral Public Economics Theories in the Laboratory," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 63(4), pages 635-658, December.
    2. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    3. James, Simon, 2010. "Combining the contributions of behavioral economics and other social sciences in understanding taxation and tax reform," MPRA Paper 26289, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Brian Knight, 2000. "The flypaper effect unstuck: evidence on endogenous grants from the Federal Highway Aid Program," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2000-49, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    5. Stefano DellaVigna, 2009. "Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 315-372, June.
    6. Jens Blom-Hansen, 2005. "Renter Illusion: Fact or Fiction?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(1), pages 127-140, January.
    7. Dollery, Brian & Worthington, Andrew, 1999. "Fiscal Illusion at the Local Level: An Empirical Test Using Australian Municipal Data," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(228), pages 37-48, March.
    8. Richard Wagner, 1976. "Revenue structure, fiscal illusion, and budgetary choice," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 45-61, March.
    9. Oates, Wallace E, 1969. "The Effects of Property Taxes and Local Public Spending on Property Values: An Empirical Study of Tax Capitalization and the Tiebout Hypothesis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(6), pages 957-971, Nov./Dec..
    10. Oates, Wallace E., 2005. "Property taxation and local public spending: the renter effect," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 419-431, May.
    11. Joel Slemrod, 2010. "Old George Orwell Got It Backward: Some Thoughts on Behavioral Tax Economics," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 66(1), pages 15-33, March.
    12. Amy Finkelstein, 2009. "E-ztax: Tax Salience and Tax Rates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 969-1010.
    13. Schepanski, A. & Shearer, T., 1995. "A Prospect Theory Account of the Income Tax Withholding Phenomenon," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 174-186, August.
    14. Raj Chetty & Adam Looney & Kory Kroft, 2009. "Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1145-1177, September.
    15. Rupert Sausgruber & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2005. "Testing the Mill hypothesis of fiscal illusion," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 39-68, January.
    16. Dornstein, Miriam, 1987. "Taxes: Attitudes and perceptions and their social bases," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 55-76, March.
    17. Turnbull, Geoffrey K., 1992. "Fiscal illusion, uncertainty, and the flypaper effect," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 207-223, July.
    18. Williamson, Maureen R. & Wearing, Alexander J., 1996. "Lay people's cognitive models of the economy," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 3-38, February.
    19. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    20. Heyndels, Bruno & Smolders, Carine, 1994. "Fiscal Illusion at the Local Level: Empirical Evidence for the Flemish Municipalities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 80(3-4), pages 325-338, September.
    21. Gonzalez, Cleotilde & Dana, Jason & Koshino, Hideya & Just, Marcel, 2005. "The framing effect and risky decisions: Examining cognitive functions with fMRI," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-20, February.
    22. Daniel Kahneman & Jack L. Knetsch & Richard H. Thaler, 1991. "Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 193-206, Winter.
    23. Werner W. Pommerehne & Friedrich Schneider*, 1978. "Fiscal Illusion, Political Institutions, And Local Public Spending," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 381-408, August.
    24. Raj Chetty & Emmanuel Saez, 2013. "Teaching the Tax Code: Earnings Responses to an Experiment with EITC Recipients," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 1-31, January.
    25. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    26. Schokkaert, Erik, 1988. "Fiscal preferences and fiscal knowledge at the local level," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 29-46, March.
    27. Dalamagas, Basil A, 1992. "How Rival Are the Ricardian Equivalence Proposition and the Fiscal Policy Potency View?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 39(4), pages 457-476, November.
    28. Richard E. Wagner, 2003. "Public Choice and the Diffusion of Classic Italian Public Finance," Il Pensiero Economico Italiano, Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa - Roma, vol. 11(1), pages 271-282.
    29. Carroll, Robert & Yinger, John, 1994. "Is the Property Tax a Benefit Tax? The Case of Rental Housing," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(2), pages 295-316, June.
    30. Haug, Peter, 2009. "Shadow Budgets, Fiscal Illusion and Municipal Spending: The Case of Germany," IWH Discussion Papers 9/2009, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    31. Rebecca J. Campbell, 2004. "Leviathan and Fiscal Illusion in Local Government Overlapping Jurisdictions," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 120(3_4), pages 301-329, September.
    32. McCaffery, Edward J. & Baron, Jonathan, 2004. "Framing and taxation: Evaluation of tax policies involving household composition," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 679-705, December.
    33. Roberto Dell’Anno & Paulo Mourao, 2012. "Fiscal Illusion around the World," Public Finance Review, , vol. 40(2), pages 270-299, March.
    34. Dollery, Brian E & Worthington, Andrew C, 1996. "The Empirical Analysis of Fiscal Illusion," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(3), pages 261-297, September.
    35. B. Dalamagas, 1993. "Fiscal Illusion and the Level of Indebtedness: An International Comparison," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 61(1), pages 29-37, March.
    36. Domenico Da Empoli, 2002. "The Theory of Fiscal Illusion in a Constitutional Perspective," Public Finance Review, , vol. 30(5), pages 377-384, September.
    37. Gemmell, Norman & Morrissey, Oliver & Pinar, Abuzer, 2002. "Fiscal Illusion and Political Accountability: Theory and Evidence from Two Local Tax Regimes in Britain," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 110(3-4), pages 199-224, March.
    38. Clotfelter, Charles T, 1976. "Public Spending for Higher Education: An Empirical Test of Two Hypotheses," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 31(2), pages 177-195.
    39. Kirchler,Erich, 2007. "The Economic Psychology of Tax Behaviour," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521876742.
    40. Erich Kirchler & Stephan Muehlbacher & Barbara Kastlunger & Ingrid Wahl, 2007. "Why Pay Taxes? A Review of Tax Compliance Decisions," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0730, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    41. Turnbull, Geoffrey K., 1998. "The Overspending and Flypaper Effects of Fiscal Illusion: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 1-26, July.
    42. Dennis Epple & Katherine Schipper, 1981. "Municipal pension funding: A theory and some evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 141-178, January.
    43. Fujii, Edwin T & Hawley, Clifford B, 1988. "On the Accuracy of Tax Perceptions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(2), pages 344-347, May.
    44. John G. Cullis & Philip R. Jones, 1987. "Fiscal Illusion and "Excessive" Budgets: Some Indirect Evidence," Public Finance Review, , vol. 15(2), pages 219-228, April.
    45. Becker, Elizabeth, 1996. "The Illusion of Fiscal Illusion: Unsticking the Flypaper Effect," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 86(1-2), pages 85-102, January.
    46. Robert P. Inman, 2008. "The Flypaper Effect," NBER Working Papers 14579, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    47. Jorge Martinez- Vazquez, 1983. "Renters' Illusion or Savvy?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 11(2), pages 237-247, April.
    48. Fochmann, Martin & Kiesewetter, Dirk & Blaufus, Kay & Hundsdoerfer, Jochen & Weimann, Joachim, 2010. "Tax Perception: An empirical survey," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 99, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    49. Dougan, William R & Kenyon, Daphne A, 1988. "Pressure Groups and Public Expenditures: The Flypaper Effect Reconsidered," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(1), pages 159-170, January.
    50. Greene, Kenneth V & Hawley, Brian K, 1991. "Personal Income Taxes, Elasticities and Fiscal Illusion," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 72(2-3), pages 101-109, December.
    51. Carroll, Robert & Yinger, John, 1994. "Is the Property Tax a Benefit Tax? The Case of Rental Housing," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 47(2), pages 295-316, June.
    52. James R. Hines & Richard H. Thaler, 1995. "The Flypaper Effect," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 217-226, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Antonio Abatemarco & Roberto Dell’Anno, 2020. "Fiscal illusion and progressive taxation with retrospective voting," Economic and Political Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 246-273, April.
    2. Roberto Dell’Anno & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2013. "A Behavioral Local Public Finance Perspective on the Renter’s Illusion Hypothesis," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1303, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    3. Roberto Dell’Anno & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2019. "A problem with observational equivalence: Disentangling the renter illusion hypothesis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(1), pages 193-209, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roberto Dell’Anno & Paulo Mourao, 2012. "Fiscal Illusion around the World," Public Finance Review, , vol. 40(2), pages 270-299, March.
    2. Brunner, Eric J. & Ross, Stephen L. & Simonsen, Becky K., 2015. "Homeowners, renters and the political economy of property taxation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 38-49.
    3. Sanandaji, Tino & Wallace, Björn, 2010. "Fiscal Illusion and Fiscal Obfuscation:An Empirical Study of Tax Perception in Sweden," Working Paper Series 837, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    4. H. Spencer Banzhaf & Wallace E. Oates, 2012. "On Fiscal Illusion and Ricardian Equivalence in Local Public Finance," NBER Working Papers 18040, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Andreas Buehn & Roberto Dell’Anno & Friedrich Schneider, 2018. "Exploring the dark side of tax policy: an analysis of the interactions between fiscal illusion and the shadow economy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1609-1630, June.
    6. James Alm & Carolyn J. Bourdeaux, 2013. "Applying Behavioral Economics to the Public Sector," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 206(3), pages 91-134, September.
    7. Facchini, Francois, 2014. "The determinants of public spending: a survey in a methodological perspective," MPRA Paper 53006, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. H. Spencer Banzhaf & Wallace E. Oates, 2013. "On Fiscal Illusion in Local Public Finance: Re-Examining Ricardian Equivalence and the Renter Effect," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 66(3), pages 511-540, September.
    9. Andrew Abbott & Philip Jones, 2016. "Fiscal Illusion and Cyclical Government Expenditure: State Government Expenditure in the United States," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 63(2), pages 177-193, May.
    10. Roberto Dell'Anno & Morena De Stefano, 2014. "Un indicatore sintetico dell?Illusione Finanziaria. Un tentativo di stima per l?Italia," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 65-92.
    11. Roberto Dell’Anno & Brian Dollery, 2014. "Comparative fiscal illusion: a fiscal illusion index for the European Union," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 937-960, May.
    12. Xavier Gabaix, 2017. "Behavioral Inattention," NBER Working Papers 24096, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Haug, Peter, 2009. "Shadow Budgets, Fiscal Illusion and Municipal Spending: The Case of Germany," IWH Discussion Papers 9/2009, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    14. Fochmann, Martin & Wolf, Nadja, 2019. "Framing and salience effects in tax evasion decisions – An experiment on underreporting and overdeducting," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 260-277.
    15. Hammed Amusa & Robert Mabunda & Ramos Mabugu, 2008. "Fiscal Illusion At The Local Sphere: An Empirical Test Of The Flypaper Effect Using South African Municipal Data1," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(3), pages 443-465, September.
    16. Sausgruber, Rupert & Tyran, Jean-Robert, 2011. "Are we taxing ourselves?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 164-176.
    17. Brian Dollery & Andrew Worthington, 1999. "Fiscal Illusion at the Local Level: An Empirical Test Using Australian Municipal Data," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(1), pages 37-48, March.
    18. Avram, Silvia, 2015. "Benefit losses loom larger than taxes: the effects of framing and loss aversion on behavioural responses to taxes and benefits," ISER Working Paper Series 2015-17, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    19. Ankie Scott-Joseph, 2022. "Debt financing and fiscal illusion: evidence from Caribbean states," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(9), pages 1-25, September.
    20. F. Forte, 1997. "The measurement of 'fiscal burden' on GDP instead than on national net value added produced: a chapter in fiscal illusion," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 50(202), pages 337-375.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
    • B29 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fan:spespe:v:html10.3280/spe2013-002004. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stefania Rosato (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.aspx?IDRivista=121 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.