Heard it through the grapevine: The direct and network effects of a tax enforcement field experiment on firms

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Boning, William C.; Guyton, John; Hodge, Ronald; Slemrod, Joel
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104261
• 发表日期: 2020
• 关键词: Tax enforcement; randomized experiments; networks

摘要

Tax enforcement may have deterrent effects that extend beyond directly treated taxpayers, but evidence of such deterrent effects for major sources of revenue is limited. This paper studies the effects of a large-scale field experiment on employer deposits that make up most US. tax collections. In-person visits by Revenue Officers have a large direct effect on visited firms' tax deposits. The other clients of visited firms' tax preparers also deposit more tax, a network effect that suggests preparers disseminate information. Aggregating over all links, this network effect accounts for 1.2 times as much revenue as the direct effect. Letters conveying the same message are found to have much smaller direct effects and no measurable network effects. Published by Elsevier B.V.