Does National Identity of Benefit Recipients Matter in Tax Compliance? An Online Experiment in Denmark and Italy

This study puts to a causal test a relationship that has been implied by years of correlational research: that individuals’ willingness to pay taxes decreases when tax-funded benefits are distributed to immigrants. To this aim, we designed an online tax evasion experiment with real tax-funded redistribution to unemployed people via donations to charitable organizations. We used a between-subject design with randomized controlled treatments on the national identity of donation recipients. Drawing from a cross-national sample of natives in Denmark and Italy, we find that in both countries, tax compliance is not statistically affected by the immigration status of benefit recipients. The results call into question key aspects of established theory on welfare states, particularly concepts related to welfare chauvinism and deservingness