Higher taxes, more evasion? Evidence from border differentials in TV license fees

Melissa Berger (), Gerlinde Fellner-Röhling (), Rupert Sausgruber and Christian Traxler

No 15-008, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: This paper studies the evasion of TV license fees in Austria. We exploit border differentials to identify the effect of fees on evasion. Comparing municipalities at the low- and high-fee side of state borders reveals that higher fees trigger significantly more evasion. The central estimate from a spatial regression discontinuity design indicates that a one percent increase in fees raises the evasion rate by 0.3 percentage points. The positive effect of fees on evasion is confirmed in different parametric and non-parametric approaches and survives several robustness checks.

Keywords: Evasion; TV License Fees; Border Tax Differentials; Regression Discontinuity Design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H26 H27 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-iue, nep-pbe, nep-pub and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Higher taxes, more evasion? Evidence from border differentials in TV license fees (2016)
Working Paper: Higher Taxes, More Evasion? Evidence from Border Differentials in TV License Fees (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:15008

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