Taxpayer Search for Information: Implications for Rational Attention

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hoopes, Jeffrey L.; Reck, Daniel H.; Slemrod, Joel
• 署名单位: University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20140050
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 177-208
• 关键词: tax; demand

摘要

We examine data on capital-gains-tax-related information search to determine when and how taxpayers acquire information. We find seasonal increases in information search around tax deadlines, suggesting that taxpayers seek information to comply with tax law. Positive correlations between stock market activity and search as well as year-end spikes in information search on capital losses when the market performs poorly suggest that taxpayers seek information for tax planning purposes. Policy changes and news events cause information search. These data suggest that taxpayers are not always fully informed, but that rational attention and exogenous shocks to tax salience drive taxpayer information search.