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on Nudge and Boosting |
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Issue of 2025–06–09
three papers chosen by Marco Novarese, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Deparade, Darius; Jarmolinski, Lennart; Mohr, Peter |
| Abstract: | Tax evasion is associated with high social and fiscal costs. To address these, many governments employ behavioral interventions given their low implementation costs and high potential efficiency. Although many studies report positive effects of behavioral interventions to combat tax evasion, the effect sizes are often quite small. This may result from the partial cancellation of heterogeneous effects and prompts calls in the literature for individualized or group-tailored interventions. While classification approaches for taxpayer types exist, their practical implementation is limited by data availability. We systematically review 144 studies conducted between 1996 and 2024 and show that group-tailored interventions along key inequality dimensions-gender, income, age, and regionality-may not only enhance tax compliance but also help address inequality. Furthermore, our heterogeneity analysis shows that intervention effectiveness can be enhanced by the incorporation of specific characteristics related to framing, intervention frequency, and communication channels. Finally, we present a theoretical model to support group-tailored interventions and thus provide policymakers with an efficient strategy to combat tax evasion. |
| Keywords: | Tax Compliance, Behavioral Intervention, Heterogeneity, Inequality |
| JEL: | H26 D31 D90 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:318371 |
| By: | Beatrice Bertelli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia); Marianna Brunetti (CEIS & DEF, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", GLO and Cefin); Costanza Torricelli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, CEFIN and CeRP); Mariangela Zoli (CEIS & DEF, University of Rome "Tor Vergata" and SEEDS) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses two main research questions in sustainable finance: what is the household willingness to pay for sustainable investments? Can households be stimulated in this connection by means of visual nudges? To this end we ran a pilot lab-in-the-field experiment in October-November 2024 in different branches of a large Italian bank. Three are the main results. First, the willingness to pay is lower for graduated individuals, but higher for those with an investment horizon between 1 and 5 years, and among those engaged in volunteering and concerned about climate change. Second, the exposure to a negative visual treatment, by contrast to a positive one, causes an average increase in the willingness to pay for Environmental, Social, and Governance assets, albeit this effect vanishes once the model is augmented with control variables. Third, when dissecting results by the factor of interest, the negative visual treatment significantly increases the willingness to pay among the investors interested in the Environmental dimension only. This suggests that, with a suitable leverage, the demand and willingness to pay for all sustainability dimensions can be nudged, with important industry and policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable finance; household financial choices; willingness to pay;visual nudges; lab-in-the field experiment |
| JEL: | D14 G11 M30 |
| Date: | 2025–05–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:600 |
| By: | Stijn Bruers; Erwin Ooghe; Erik Schokkaert |
| Abstract: | We conducted a large-scale and long lasting randomized field experiment at the donation centers of the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders to study the impact of a small extra reward for plasma donations. Donors normally receive one thank-you-coupon (worth €1.5) for a blood donation and two coupons for a plasma donation. Informing donors about these existing rewards increased plasma donations with on average 4.6% per month over a nine-month information period. Rewarding plasma donations with an extra thank-you-coupon increased plasma donations with an additional 7.1% per month over a six-month reward period. However, the extra reward for plasma decreased blood donations at donation centers with on average 3.3% per month over the reward period. Results of an additional representative survey show that a desire (i) to reciprocate the extra coupon and (ii) to respond to the extra coupon as a signal of higher needs are plausible prosocial motivations to explain the strong effect of a small extra quasi-cash reward. The survey results also suggest that our findings are not only relevant for plasma donations, but also for volunteering more generally. |
| Keywords: | field experiment, plasma, quasi-cash, small rewards, prosocial behavior, volunteering |
| JEL: | C93 D91 I18 L30 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11899 |