Commitment to tax compliance: Timing effect on willingness to evade

Experimental and empirical literature on individual decision-making has shown a remarkable difference between planning and ongoing decisions: when asked to plan their actions, people overweight events with low probability; on the contrary, in ongoing decisions, they tend to ignore them. We report on a laboratory experiment designed to explore the presence of this decisional inconsistency in taxpayers’ behavior, by means of a commitment system for compliance. In line with the overweighting of events with small probabilities (i.e. fiscal audits), we find that planning induces the majority of people not only to adopt a mechanism of commitment to tax compliance, but also to actually comply.     

Modes of Practice and the Dual Mission of Social Work

Abstract

This study examines the commitment of social work in various countries to its declared dual missionenhancing individual well-being and promoting social justice. It does so by examining the mode of practice preferences of graduating BSW students from seven countries. Based on cluster analysis, three distinct subgroups of students with particular patterns of preferences were found: a generic group, a direct/micro group, and a macro group. The distribution of students among these groups differs between country cohorts. While each of the clusters was to be found in all the countries studied, in three country cohorts, a majority of students belonged to the generic group and a considerable number sought to engage in macro practice, reflecting a commitment to the profession's dual focus. The majority of the students within the remaining country cohorts preferred micro practice and were far less willing to adopt macro level practices.     

Socioeconomic status and the dynamics of preferences for income inequality in the United States, 1978–2016

Although considerable evidence indicates that public preferences for income inequality and redistribution vary across socioeconomic groups (i.e., occupation and income), much less is known about the temporal dynamics of these preferences. The purpose of this study is (a) to examine whether the attitudinal distance between managerial/professional workers and unskilled manual workers has changed (converged or diverged) over time and to (b) explore the reasons for and implications of the dynamics of preferences in the past several decades. Using data from the General Social Survey 1978–2016 (23 time‐points; N = 27,211), this study finds that the influence of occupational class has lost some of its significance in shaping public preferences for income inequality and that the declining effect of occupation can be explained in part by the attitudinal convergence between better‐ and less‐educated citizens. Findings suggest that proequality coalitions across educational boundaries play a remedial role in bridging the occupational divide over government redistribution in the United States.     

German fathers and their preferences for shorter working hours for family reasons

This study is among the first to analyze fathers’ preference for shorter working hours specifying that the preference is related to the wish to spend more time with the family. Assuming that preferences are context-dependent, this article explores the relevance of the family and workplace context for preference formation. We develop need-based and capability-based arguments to contrast the job demands–resources approach and the capabilities approach in work–family research. Using a sample of 632 fathers from the German LEEP-B3 data with a representative linked employer–employee design for large work organizations we conclude that fathers’ preferences for shorter working hours are indeed context-dependent and that there is more evidence for need-based arguments than opportunity based arguments. Our results indicate that fathers with young children and fathers with high work demands are more likely to desire shorter working hours, whereas a reduction in working hours appears to be unnecessary for fathers who can satisfactorily reconcile work and family life through support from their supervisors. In contrast to capability-based arguments the perception of a highly demanding work culture was not found to decrease but increase the likelihood to desire to work shorter hours.     

Disagreement over the immigration of low-income earners in a welfare state

This paper studies natives’ economically motivated preferences over different levels of immigration of low-income earners. Immigration affects natives through both intra- and intergenerational redistribution programmes and in the labour market. Our analysis suggests, in a welfare state that looks after the poor and the aged, economic motivation does not necessarily lead a native to have an extreme opinion on the preferable level of immigration, although it causes disagreement among natives. We find, regardless of parameter values, high-income earners prefer at least as much immigration as low-income earners who, in turn, prefer at least as much immigration as pensioners. The median voter is then likely to be a low-income native.

我国经济欠发达地区农村社会养老保险制度的构建

与发达地区相比,我国经济欠发达地区农村养老保险发展十分缓慢,覆盖面极其有限。实际上,经济欠发达地区的农民最需要社会养老保险,因为他们的基本生活需求没有保证,这些地区未富先老特征更为明显,传统的保障功能在弱化。然而,源于农民收入低,增长慢,支付保险费的能力弱;集体经济薄弱,无法为农民养老保险提供资金支持;地方财力单薄,难以全面提供以政府为主的养老基金融资;经济欠发达地区农民获得社会养老保险能力又最弱。为此,应将经济欠发达地区农村社会养老保险作为建设覆盖城乡居民社会保障体系的推进重点,变政府扶持为财政拨款,并向经济欠发达地区倾斜;大力进行宣传教育,让农民充分了解参加社会养老保险的必要性。     

The demography of words: The global decline in non-numeric fertility preferences, 1993–2011

This paper examines the decline in non-numeric responses to questions about fertility preferences among women in the developing world. These types of response—such as ‘don’t know’ or ‘it’s up to God’—have often been interpreted through the lens of fertility transition theory as an indication that reproduction has not yet entered women’s ‘calculus of conscious choice’. However, this has yet to be investigated cross-nationally and over time. Using 19?years of data from 32 countries, we find that non-numeric fertility preferences decline most substantially in the early stages of a country’s fertility transition. Using country-specific and multilevel models, we explore the individual- and contextual-level characteristics associated with women’s likelihood of providing a non-numeric response to questions about their fertility preferences. Non-numeric fertility preferences are influenced by a host of social factors, with educational attainment and knowledge of contraception being the most robust and consistent predictors.     

An affective social tie mechanism: Theory,evidence, and implications

This paper presents substantial evidence of a simple social tie mechanism that endogenizes people’s care about other individuals under the influence of interaction experiences. The mechanism is rooted in scientific studies from various disciplines. For our evidence, we propose and estimate a dynamic model of tie formation using different experimental datasets regarding public goods, test its within-sample and out-of-sample predictive performance, and compare it with other models. In addition to the support obtained for the mechanism, we find that the effects of interaction experiences show substantial persistence over time, and that only a minority looks ahead to strategically influence the behavior of interaction partners. Furthermore, our model appears to track the often volatile behavioral dynamics of the different datasets remarkably well. Additional evidence is presented of a neural substrate of the tie mechanism, based on a recent (fMRI) application of the estimated model, and of the explanatory power of our model regarding other extant experimental findings. Implications for private and public governance and topics for future research are discussed.     

Rent-seeking and competitive preferences

In this experiment, I examine the extent to which competitive social preferences can explain over-bidding in rent-seeking contests. The Human treatment is a standard two-player contest. In the Robot treatment, a single player bids against a computerized player, eliminating potential social preference motives. The results show no difference in bids between treatments at the aggregate level. Further analysis shows evidence of heterogeneous treatment effects between impulsive and reflective subjects. Moreover, impulsive subjects are more likely than reflective subjects to deviate qualitatively from the shape of the theoretical best response function.     

应慎言“以产业优惠代替区域优惠”

在促进后发展地区经济发展的过程中,世界各国普遍将税收区域优惠政策作为刺激投资的主要措施,我国在东南沿海开发、开放初期也不例外.在区域税收优惠方面,按“经济特区——经济技术开发区——沿海经济开放区——内地”梯度递减的方式体现,使东南沿海地区享受的税收优惠待遇远高于其他地区,形成了我国税收区域优惠政策的格局.经过三十多年的开发、开放,已造就了长三角、珠三角、环渤海地区三大增长极,其发展态势和增长速度受到全世界的关注.税收区域优惠政策对东部地区的发展发挥了巨大的刺激作用,造就了一批民族品牌,扩大了社会就业,促进了居民生活水平的大幅提高.目前,在我国应实行税收区域优惠政策从东南沿海向中西部地区的转移,而不应简单的“以产业优惠替代区域优惠”或“淡出税收区域优惠政策”.