Conspicuous Taxation

In Norway, tax returns have been made public.

Alex Tabarrok asks:

Perhaps most interesting–does conspicuous consumption fall and efficiency increase in a society in which income is conspicuous?

An interesting variation on this is: Can we find evidence for people declaring more than what they truly earn so that the neighbours comment on it (reverse tax fraud).

He drives a really old car, but, in fact, he makes a ton on family income alone. I guess he just doesn’t want us to know. You know, old money doesn’t show off.

Probably this effect would be higher in the lower tax-brackets!

(I don’t know how to test for this based on that data, however.)

In Norway, tax returns have been made public. Alex Tabarrok asks: Perhaps most interesting--does conspicuous consumption fall and efficiency increase in a society in which income is conspicuous? An interesting variation on this is: Can we find evidence for people declaring more than what they truly earn so that the neighbours comment on it (reverse tax fraud). He ...