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Ain't that a shame : false tax declarations and fraudulent benefit claims
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Barile, Lory, Cullis, John and Jones, Phillip (2022) Ain't that a shame : false tax declarations and fraudulent benefit claims. Working Paper. Coventry, UK: University of Warwick. Department of Economics. Warwick economics research papers series (WERPS) (1435). (Unpublished)
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Official URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w...
Abstract
This paper begins by listing three ‘uncomfortable’ implications of the standard expected utility model of individual decision-making concerning participation in fiscal crimes: that tax evasion and benefit fraud can be treated identically; fiscal crimes should be endemic; and that all individuals, depending on parameter values, should be either honest or dishonest. Levitt and List’s (2007) utility function relating to decisions with a moral dimension is adapted to offer insight into these implications involving an individual’s ‘optimal honesty’ and ‘moral hinterland’. Predictions are developed that include moral costs as a determinant of dishonest intentions and are tested with reference to some 2,942 questionnaire responses to a 2016 national (UK) survey. This paper offers insight into the way moral costs inform perceptions of the intrinsic value of ‘doing the right thing’ thereby providing a richer analysis of fiscal crimes. The account has particular relevance for policy prescriptions that involve aspects of ‘shame’.
Item Type: | Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Welfare fraud -- Great Britain , Fraud -- Great Britain, Tax evasion -- Economic aspects | ||||
Series Name: | Warwick economics research papers series (WERPS) | ||||
Publisher: | University of Warwick. Department of Economics | ||||
Place of Publication: | Coventry, UK | ||||
ISSN: | 0083-7350 | ||||
Official Date: | 10 November 2022 | ||||
Dates: |
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Number: | 1435 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 43 | ||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Status: | Not Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||
Description: | |||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 14 November 2022 | ||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 15 November 2022 |
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