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Property Tax Assessment Quality: Willingness-to-Pay for Reduced Risk in a Lab Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Jason J. Delaney

    (Georgia Gwinnett College)

  • David L. Sjoquist

    (Georgia State University)

  • Sally Wallace

    (Georgia State University and African Tax Institute, University of Pretoria RSA)

Abstract

We conduct a laboratory experiment to explore the willingness to pay to improve the accuracy of property assessment and issues regarding attitudes toward these assessments and taxes. We explore individual willingness to pay to improve property assessment accuracy; the extent to which the willingness to pay to improve the accuracy of property assessments depends on whether the risk for other property owners decreases; and finally, we use the results to estimate demand for reduced risk and find that subjects were not willing to pay to reduce the assessment variance to a level consistent with best practices in property tax assessment.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason J. Delaney & David L. Sjoquist & Sally Wallace, 2020. "Property Tax Assessment Quality: Willingness-to-Pay for Reduced Risk in a Lab Experiment," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 234(3), pages 23-58, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:hpe:journl:y:2020:v:234:i:3:p:23-58
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Yuying An, 1996. "Semiparametric Estimation of Willingness to Pay Distributions," Econometrics 9611001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Sjoquist, David L. & Walker, Mary Beth, 1999. "Economies of Scale in Property Tax Assessment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 2), pages 207-20, June.
    3. Sjoquist, David L. & Walker, Mary Beth, 1999. "Economies of Scale in Property Tax Assessment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(2), pages 207-220, June.
    4. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2011. "Individual Risk Attitudes: Measurement, Determinants, And Behavioral Consequences," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 522-550, June.
    5. An, Mark Y. & Roberto Ayala, 1995. "A Mixture Model of Willingness to Pay Distributions," Working Papers 95-21, Duke University, Department of Economics.
    6. Ackermann, Hagen & Fochmann, Martin & Mihm, Benedikt, 2013. "Biased effects of taxes and subsidies on portfolio choices," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 23-26.
    7. Lucy F. Ackert & Jorge Martinez‐Vazquez & Mark Rider, 2007. "Social Preferences And Tax Policy Design: Some Experimental Evidence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 45(3), pages 487-501, July.
    8. Kirchler, Erich, 1998. "Differential representations of taxes: Analysis of free associations and judgments of five employment groups," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 117-131.
    9. Harry Telser & Peter Zweifel, 2002. "Measuring willingness‐to‐pay for risk reduction: an application of conjoint analysis," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(2), pages 129-139, March.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Property Tax Assessment; experiment;

    JEL classification:

    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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