Social Identities,Ethnic Diversity,and Tax Morale

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of individuals’ social identities on their tax attitudes and how these effects on the micro level are translated to the impact of a country’s ethnic heterogeneity on the public’s overall tax morale. The author finds that both ethnic and national identities play important roles shaping tax morale, and these effects depend on the country’s population heterogeneity. Overall, ethnically fractionalized countries have poorer tax morale than homogeneous ones, suggesting a higher cost of tax collection for the former. This is consistent with previous findings that suggest detrimental impact of ethnic fractionalization on public sector performance.