IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/itaxpf/v32y2025i4d10.1007_s10797-024-09872-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Characteristics and responses of winners in the Greek tax lottery

Author

Listed:
  • Panayiotis Nicolaides

    (Paris School of Economics)

Abstract

The Greek tax lottery incentivises consumers to shift from cash to electronic payments by awarding €1,000 to 1,000 winners every month. Utilising administrative tax data, I analyse the income and occupation characteristics of winners, revealing that the lottery favours high-income taxpayers and the self-employed, who exhibit higher spending levels. Leveraging a unique event of retroactive draws in December 2017, I quantify the winners’ responses after receiving a prize. Low-to-middle-income taxpayers increase their electronic consumption temporarily, indicating that those who are less likely to win respond the most. Self-employed taxpayers with high spending levels halve their electronic consumption, suggesting that winning leads to higher perceived visibility of transactions by the tax authority. Using lottery simulations, I explore ticket ceilings that reduce the concentration of prizes among high-consumption individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • Panayiotis Nicolaides, 2025. "Characteristics and responses of winners in the Greek tax lottery," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(4), pages 1030-1075, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:32:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10797-024-09872-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10797-024-09872-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10797-024-09872-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10797-024-09872-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher D. Carroll & Jiri Slacalek & Kiichi Tokuoka, 2014. "The Distribution of Wealth and the MPC: Implications of New European Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 107-111, May.
    2. Svetoslav Danchev & Georgios Gatopoulos & Nikolaos Vettas, 2020. "Penetration of Digital Payments in Greece after Capital Controls: Determinants and Impact on VAT Revenues," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 66(3), pages 198-220.
    3. Browning, Martin & Francois Bourguignon & Pierre-Andre Chiappori & Valerie Lechene, 1994. "Income and Outcomes: A Structural Model of Intrahousehold Allocation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1067-1096, December.
    4. Joana Naritomi, 2019. "Consumers as Tax Auditors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(9), pages 3031-3072, September.
    5. Shelly J. Lundberg & Robert A. Pollak & Terence J. Wales, 1997. "Do Husbands and Wives Pool Their Resources? Evidence from the United Kingdom Child Benefit," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(3), pages 463-480.
    6. Hondroyiannis, George & Papaoikonomou, Dimitrios, 2017. "The effect of card payments on VAT revenue: New evidence from Greece," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 17-20.
    7. Dina Pomeranz, 2015. "No Taxation without Information: Deterrence and Self-Enforcement in the Value Added Tax," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(8), pages 2539-2569, August.
    8. Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Martin B. Knudsen & Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Søren Pedersen & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "Unwilling or Unable to Cheat? Evidence From a Tax Audit Experiment in Denmark," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(3), pages 651-692, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bohne, Albrecht & Koumpias, Antonios M. & Tassi, Annalisa, 2023. "Cashless payments and tax evasion: Evidence from VAT gaps in the EU," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-060, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Arun Advani, 2022. "Who does and doesn't pay taxes?," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 5-22, March.
    3. Naritomi, Joana & Nyamdavaa, Tsogsag & Campbell, Stephanie, 2025. "Enlisting consumers in tax enforcement: a policy review," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 127223, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Clément Imbert & Johannes Spinnewijn & Teodora Tsankova & Maarten Luts, 2021. "How to Improve Tax Compliance? Evidence from Population-Wide Experiments in Belgium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(5), pages 1425-1463.
    5. Adhikari, Bibek & Alm, James & Harris, Timothy F., 2021. "Small business tax compliance under third-party reporting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    6. Annabelle Doerr & Sarah Necker, 2021. "Collaborative Tax Evasion in the Provision of Services to Consumers: A Field Experiment," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 185-216, November.
    7. Todd Kumler & Eric Verhoogen & Judith Frías, 2020. "Enlisting Employees in Improving Payroll Tax Compliance: Evidence from Mexico," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(5), pages 881-896, December.
    8. Irene Di Marzio & Sauro Mocetti & Enrico Rubolino, 2024. "The market externalities of tax evasion," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1467, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Waseem, Mazhar, 2023. "Overclaimed refunds, undeclared sales, and invoice mills: Nature and extent of noncompliance in a value-added tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    10. Kotakorpi, Kaisa & Nurminen, Tuomas & Miettinen, Topi & Metsälampi, Satu, 2024. "Bearing the burden — Implications of tax reporting institutions on evasion and incidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 81-134.
    11. Lilith Burgstaller & Annabelle Doerr & Sarah Necker, 2023. "Do Household Tax Credits Increase the Demand for Legally Provided Services?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10211, CESifo.
    12. Sebastián Bustos & Dina Pomeranz & Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato & José Vila-Belda & Gabriel Zucman, 2022. "The Race Between Tax Enforcement and Tax Planning: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Chile," NBER Working Papers 30114, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Joana Naritomi, 2019. "Consumers as Tax Auditors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(9), pages 3031-3072, September.
    14. Harju, Jarkko & Kosonen, Tuomas & Slemrod, Joel, 2020. "Missing miles: Evasion responses to car taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    15. Burgstaller, Lilith & Pfeil, Katharina, 2022. "You don't need an invoice, do you? An online experiment on collaborative tax evasion," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 22/6, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    16. Lopez-Luzuriaga, Andrea & Scartascini, Carlos, 2019. "Compliance spillovers across taxes: The role of penalties and detection," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 518-534.
    17. Samuel Kapon & Lucia Del Carpio & Sylvain Chassang, 2024. "Using Divide-and-Conquer to Improve Tax Collection," Working Papers 335, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    18. Weigel, Jonathan & Balán, Pablo & Bergeron, Augustin & Tourek, Gabriel, 2020. "Local Elites as State Capacity: How City Chiefs Use Local Information to Increase Tax Compliance in the D.R. Congo," CEPR Discussion Papers 15138, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Philippe Aghion & Maxime Gravoueille & Matthieu Lequien & Stefanie Stantcheva, 2017. "Tax Simplicity or Simplicity of Evasion? Evidence from Self-Employment Taxes in France," NBER Working Papers 24049, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Gonzalo E. Sánchez, 2022. "Non-compliance notifications and taxpayer strategic behavior: evidence from Ecuador," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(3), pages 627-666, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:kap:itaxpf:v:32:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10797-024-09872-7. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.