Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/261219 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Cardiff Economics Working Papers No. E2021/26
Publisher: 
Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff
Abstract: 
We study the impact of the media negativity 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. Instead, the exposure to negative news does not prompt any significant reaction compared to the neutral condition, suggesting that participants may 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 provision is a constant source of psychological priming and plays a vital role in tax payers' compliance decisions.
Subjects: 
tax compliance
media bias
taxation game
laboratory experiment
JEL: 
C91
D70
H26
H31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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