European Financial and Accounting Journal 2010, 5(1):51-63 | DOI: 10.18267/j.efaj.44

Behavioral Consequences of Optimal Tax Structure - Empirical Analysis

Stanislav Klazar
Ing. Stanislav Klazar, Ph.D. - assistant professor; Faculty of Finance and Accounting, University of Economics, Prague; <klazar@vse.cz>.

The aim of the paper was to analyze some behavioral effects, especially the effect of "hidden" tax, the "preference of progressivity" effect and some kind of "preference of short period incidence" effects of citizen. The effects predict the citizens will prefer hidden taxes to direct levies. The behavioral experiments revealed that additional information concerning the "hidden" tax and tax progressivity influences the preferences of respondents. They started to prefer the different ways of financing the public goods, those more progressive. Effect of "hidden" tax substantially diminishes after the prompting of information concerning the true tax incidence of corporate income tax. At the beginning the corporate income tax was preferred all over the groups, but later it lost its dominance and the alternative personal income tax became the favorable way how to finance of public goods. It is evident the relevant information concerning the real tax incidence and the redistributional effects of particular tax measures can significantly change the citizens view how to construct the preferred tax mix. It might also affect the process of political negotiation and reasoning.

Keywords: Behavioral experiments, Experimental economics, Hidden tax, Progressivity of tax, Tax credit, Tax deduction
JEL classification: C91, H21, H22, H23

Published: March 1, 2010  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Klazar, S. (2010). Behavioral Consequences of Optimal Tax Structure - Empirical Analysis. European Financial and Accounting Journal, 5(1), 51-63. doi: 10.18267/j.efaj.44
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Baron, J. (2000): Thinking and deciding. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
    2. Houdek, P. (2008): Time Preferences in the Perspective of Cognitive Neurosciences. [on-line], E-Logos Electronical Journal for Philosophy, c2008, [cited 13th May, 2010], <http://nb.vse.cz/kfil/elogos/mind/houdek08.pdf>.
    3. Kahneman, D. - Tversky, A. (2000): Choices, values, and frames. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000. Go to original source...
    4. Kanbur, R. - Pirttila, J. - Tuomala, M. (2006): Non-Welfarist optimal taxation and behavioral public economics. Journal of Economic Surveys, 2006, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 849-868. Go to original source...
    5. Krishna, A., - Slemrod, J. (2003): Behavioral Public Finance: Tax Design as Price Presentation. International Tax and Public Finance, 2003, vol. 10, no. 2, p. 189-203. Go to original source...
    6. Kubátová, K. (2010): Daňová teorie a politika. Praha, Wolters Kluwer, 2010.
    7. McCaffery, E. J. (2006): Behavioral Economics and Fundamental Tax Reform. Los Angeles, University of Southern California Law and Economics Working Paper Series, no. 3, 2004. Go to original source...
    8. McCaffery, E. J. - Baron, J. (2004): Thinking about Tax. Los Angeles, University of Southern California Law School, Law and Economics Working Paper Series, no. 10. Go to original source...
    9. Medved, J. et al. (2009): Daňová teória a daňový systém. Bratislava, Sprint, 2009.
    10. Pinglu, C. - Yaogen, C. (2007): Penalty Structure and Individual Tax Evasion: an Approach of Behavioral Public Finance. European Financial and Accounting Journal, 2007, vol. 2, no. 2, p. 25-43.
    11. Šeneklová, J. - Špalek, J. (2009): Jsou ekonomové jiní? Ekonomický model versus realita. Politická ekonomie, Praha, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 21-45. Go to original source...
    12. Široký, J. (2008): Daňové teorie s praktickou aplikací. Praha, C. H. Beck, 2008.
    13. Vítek, L. - Pavel, J. (2009): Ex post analýza administrativních nákladů energetických daní. In Teoretické a praktické aspekty veřejných financí. Praha, Oeconomica, 2009.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content