We study deception choices and deception detection in a tax compliance experiment. We find large systematic differences in individual deception abilities. Tax payers are conscious about their own deception abilities. The empirical outcomes are in line with a theory suggesting that tax payers...

We consider a lie-catching experiment with 9240 judgements. A set of videotapes shows subjects participating in a tax compliance experiment. The subjects chose whether or not to misreport. Subjects knew that underreporters were chosen for an audit with some probability. An audit led to detection...

Opponents of work obligations in return for transfer payments argue that workfare can crowd out private sector work, that workfare harms the welfare of the poor and thereby reduces a society’s welfare in general. This paper analyzes these objections against workfare in a discrete optimal...

Ausgehend von dem Umstand, dass Umverteilung in einem Föderalstaat zwei Dimensionen hat – zum einen die Einkommensumverteilung zwischen reicheren und ärmeren Bevölkerungsteilen und zum anderen die Umverteilung von reicheren zu ärmeren Regionen – analysiert der Aufsatz die Fragen, wie...

There exists a considerable debate in the literature investigating how stock market upswings or downswings impact financial market regulation. The present paper contributes to this literature and investigates whether financial market regulation follows a regulative cycle: does regulation, and...

We empirically investigate whether increases in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) budget have an effect on firms’ compliance behavior with securities market rules. Our study uses a dataset on the SEC’s resources and its enforcement actions over a period beginning shortly...

There exists a considerable debate in the literature investigating how stock market upswings or downswings impact financial market regulation. The present paper contributes to this literature and investigates whether financial market regulation follows a regulative cycle: does regulation, and...

In a tax compliance experiment with real face-to-face communication between declaring subjects and officers, we analyse the role of both the subject's and the officer's gender for deceptive behaviour. We do not find, first, that the amount of underreporting generally depends on the officer's...

This paper studies the role of beliefs about own performance or appearance for compliance at the customs. In an experiment in which underreporting has a higher expected payoff than truthful reporting we find: a large share, about 15-20 percent of the subjects, is more compliant if they have...

Recently, early investments in the human capital of children from socially disadvantaged environments have attracted a great deal of attention. Programs of such early intervention are spreading considerably in the U.S. and are currently tested in several European countries. In a discrete version...