A master thesis from Aalborg University
Skatteunddragelse: Et tværnationalt panelstudie af samfundsmæssige forholds påvirkning på skattemorale
[Tax Evasion: A Cross-National Panel Study on the Impact of Societal Conditions on Tax Morale]
Forfatter(e)
Semester
4. semester
Uddannelse
Udgivelsesår
2024
Afleveret
2024-06-04
Antal sider
82 pages
Abstract
Economic crime, as tax evasion, poses a significant challenge for society, as it not only leads to financial losses for the state but also undermines trust in economic systems. This thesis investigates tax evasion as a specific form of economic crime by examining how societal conditions influence tax morale. The study is structured as a cross-national panel design. By using pooled data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Study along with a two-way fixed effects model, this study examines how societal conditions impact tax morale. This study includes 25 different countries over four time periods spanning 41 years. Tax morale is defined as, the attitudes towards the acceptability of tax evasion. Societal conditions serve as the explanatory variable in the study. The theoretical foundation of the study is based on Merton's Social Structure and Anomie (1938) and Messner & Rosenfeld's Institutional Anomie Theory (1995). These theories elaborate the causal argument underlying the study's thesis: there is a relationship between societal conditions and tax morale. Societal conditions are measured in two dimensions: structural and cultural societal conditions. Structural societal conditions are composed of opportunity structures (unemployment and income levels), while cultural societal conditions consist of the propensity towards economically oriented values (attitudes towards income disparities and competition within society). The results confirm that there is a significant relationship between societal conditions and tax morale. Evidence shows a significant negative relationship between unemployment and tax morale, but the rest of the societal conditions influence tax morale in an unexpected direction. There is a significant negative relationship between income levels and tax morale, and between economically oriented values and tax morale there is a significant positive relation. In conclusion, tax morale is a complex phenomenon that is influenced differently by societal conditions depending on the context.
Emneord
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