Work

Identifying Tax Compliance from Variation in Tax Policy: Theory and Empirics

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Governments increasingly use changes in tax rules to combat evasion. We develop a general approach to point-identify tax compliance along with supply and demand elasticities; identification requires data on prices and quantities before and after changes in tax enforcement and a demand or supply shifter. We illustrate our approach using data on Airbnb collection agreements, where full enforcement is achieved by shifting the tax burden away from hosts to renters via the platform. We find that taxes are paid on roughly zero to 3.5 percent of Airbnb transactions prior to enforcement.

Source: American Economic Journal Economic Policy

DOI: 10.1257/pol.20240812

Authors: Andrew Bibler, Laura Grigolon, Keith F. Teltser, Mark J. Tremblay

Institutions: University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, University of Mannheim, Georgia State University

Language: English

Topic: Taxation and Compliance Studies

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W4391561325

FWCI:

Cites: 39

Cited by: 1

Related to: 10