IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/acsxxx/v16y2013i04n05ns0219525913500070.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Agent-Based Model Of Tax Compliance: An Application To The Spanish Case

Author

Listed:
  • TONI LLACER

    (Analytical Sociology and Institutional Design Group (GSADI), Department of Sociology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona 08193, Spain)

  • FRANCISCO J. MIGUEL

    (Laboratory for Socio-Historical Dynamics Simulation (LSDS), Analytical Sociology and Institutional Design Group (GSADI), Department of Sociology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona 08193, Spain)

  • JOSÉ A. NOGUERA

    (Analytical Sociology and Institutional Design Group (GSADI), Department of Sociology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona 08193, Spain)

  • EDUARDO TAPIA

    (Analytical Sociology and Institutional Design Group (GSADI), Department of Sociology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona 08193, Spain)

Abstract

In this paper, we present a new agent-based model for the simulation of tax compliance and tax evasion behavior (SIMULFIS). The main novelties of the model are the introduction of a "behavioral filter approach" to model tax decisions, the combination of a set of different mechanisms to produce tax compliance (namely rational choice, normative commitments and social influence), and the use of the concept of "fraud opportunity use rate" (FOUR) as the main behavioral outcome. After describing the model in detail, we display the main behavioral and economic results of 1,920 simulations calibrated for the Spanish case and designed to test for the internal validity of SIMULFIS. The behavioral outcomes show that scenarios with strict rational agents strongly overestimate tax evasion, while the introduction of social influence and normative commitments allows to generate more plausible compliance levels under certain deterrence conditions. Interestingly, the relative effect of social influence is shown to be ambivalent: it optimizes compliance under low and middle deterrence conditions, but not when deterrence is made harder. Finally, SIMULFIS economic outcomes are broadly in line with theoretical expectations, thus supporting the reliability of the model.

Suggested Citation

  • Toni Llacer & Francisco J. Miguel & José A. Noguera & Eduardo Tapia, 2013. "An Agent-Based Model Of Tax Compliance: An Application To The Spanish Case," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(04n05), pages 1-33.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:acsxxx:v:16:y:2013:i:04n05:n:s0219525913500070
    DOI: 10.1142/S0219525913500070
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219525913500070
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0219525913500070?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Halla Martin, 2012. "Tax Morale and Compliance Behavior: First Evidence on a Causal Link," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, April.
    2. Andreas Diekmann & Wojtek Przepiorka & Heiko Rauhut, 2015. "Lifting the veil of ignorance: An experiment on the contagiousness of norm violations," Rationality and Society, , vol. 27(3), pages 309-333, August.
    3. Benno Torgler, 2007. "Tax Compliance and Tax Morale," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4096.
    4. Kirchler,Erich, 2007. "The Economic Psychology of Tax Behaviour," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521876742.
    5. Bicchieri,Cristina, 2006. "The Grammar of Society," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521574907, January.
    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. Muñoz, Francisco & Nuño, Juan Carlos & Primicerio, Mario, 2015. "Effects of inspections in small world social networks with different contagion rules," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 432(C), pages 76-86.
    2. Feng Xiong & Shaojie Xiang & Peng Jin, 2019. "Study On Computational Experiments Of C2c Tax Compliance Based On Information Of Cybermediaries," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(02), pages 1-29, March.
    3. V.A. Molodykh, 2021. "Impact of Short-Term Exogenous Shocks on Taxpayer Behavior and Tax Evasion," Journal of Applied Economic Research, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, vol. 20(2), pages 241-268.

    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. Emmanuelle Deglaire & Peter Daly & Fabrice Lec, 2021. "Exposure to tax dilemmas deteriorate individuals' self-declared tax morale," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 363-397, December.
    2. Guerra, Alice & Harrington, Brooke, 2018. "Attitude–behavior consistency in tax compliance: A cross-national comparison," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 184-205.
    3. Gaetano Lisi, 2012. "Macroeconomic implications of the dynamics between power and trust: a theoretical formalisation of the ‘slippery slope’ framework," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2012_21, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    4. Colin C. Williams & Slavko Bezeredi, 2018. "An Institutional Theory Of Informal Entrepreneurship: Some Lessons From Fyr Macedonia," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(03), pages 1-22, September.
    5. Gaetano Lisi, 2012. "Testing the slippery slope framework," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 1369-1377.
    6. Alm, James & Bernasconi, Michele & Laury, Susan & Lee, Daniel J. & Wallace, Sally, 2017. "Culture, compliance, and confidentiality: Taxpayer behavior in the United States and Italy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 176-196.
    7. Lisi, Gaetano, 2014. "The interaction between trust and power: Effects on tax compliance and macroeconomic implications," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 24-33.
    8. Gabriele Ruiu & Gaetano Lisi, 2011. "Tax Morale, Slippery-Slope Framework and Tax Compliance: A Cross-section Analysis," Working Papers 2011-05, Universita' di Cassino, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche.
    9. Colin C. Williams & Slavko Bezeredi, 2021. "Explaining informal entrepreneurship in Croatia: a social actor approach," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 42(3), pages 348-368.
    10. Gaetano Lisi, 2019. "Slippery slope framework, tax morale and tax compliance: a theoretical integration and an empirical assessment," Discussion Papers in Economic Behaviour 0219, University of Valencia, ERI-CES.
    11. Korgaonkar, Chinmay N, 2022. "The Determinants of Tax Morale in India," Working Papers 22/381, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    12. Fábio Pereira Silva & Reinaldo Guerreiro & Eduardo Flores, 2019. "Voluntary versus enforced tax compliance: the slippery slope framework in the Brazilian context," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 66(2), pages 147-180, June.
    13. Natalia Borzino & Enrique Fatas & Emmanuel Peterle, 2015. "In Gov we trust: Voluntary compliance in networked investment games," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) 15-21, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    14. Christoph Bühren & Thorben C. Kundt, 2013. "Worker or Shirker – Who Evades More Taxes? A Real Effort Experiment," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201326, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    15. Nordblom, Katarina, 2017. "Tax Morale and Policy Intervention," Working Papers in Economics 711, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    16. Casal, Sandro & Mittone, Luigi, 2016. "Social esteem versus social stigma: The role of anonymity in an income reporting game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 55-66.
    17. McBride, Michael & Ridinger, Garret, 2021. "Beliefs also make social-norm preferences social," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 765-784.
    18. Torgler, Benno & Schneider, Friedrich, 2009. "The impact of tax morale and institutional quality on the shadow economy," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 228-245, April.
    19. 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.
    20. Fabio Lamantia & Mario Pezzino & Fabio Tramontana, 2017. "Tax Evasion, Intrinsic Motivation, and the Evolutionary Effects of Tax Reforms," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1707, Economics, The University of Manchester.

    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:wsi:acsxxx:v:16:y:2013:i:04n05:n:s0219525913500070. 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: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/acs/acs.shtml .

    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.