TY - UNPB
T1 - Media Bias and Tax Compliance: Experimental Evidence
AU - Fisar, Milos
AU - University, Cardiff
AU - Sabatini, Fabio
AU - Spalek, Jiri
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - We study the impact of media bias on tax compliance. Through a framed laboratory experiment, we assess how the exposure to biased news about government action affects compliance in a repeated taxation game. Subjects treated with positive news are significantly more compliant than the control group. The exposure to negative news, instead, does not prompt any significant reaction in respect to the neutral condition, suggesting that participants perceive the media negativity bias in the selection and tonality of news as the norm rather than the exception. Overall, our results suggest that biased news act as a constant source of psychological priming and play a vital role in taxpayers' compliance decisions.
AB - We study the impact of media bias on tax compliance. Through a framed laboratory experiment, we assess how the exposure to biased news about government action affects compliance in a repeated taxation game. Subjects treated with positive news are significantly more compliant than the control group. The exposure to negative news, instead, does not prompt any significant reaction in respect to the neutral condition, suggesting that participants perceive the media negativity bias in the selection and tonality of news as the norm rather than the exception. Overall, our results suggest that biased news act as a constant source of psychological priming and play a vital role in taxpayers' compliance decisions.
UR - https://ideas.repec.org/p/mub/wpaper/2020-01.html
M3 - Working Paper/Preprint
T3 - MUNI ECON Working Papers
BT - Media Bias and Tax Compliance: Experimental Evidence
ER -