Ideological alignment, public sector size and tax morale: empirical evidence from OECD economies

Abstract

This paper analyzes the extent to which ideological differences between citizens and their governments, in conjunction with the observed size of the public sector, influence taxpayers’ intrinsic motivations to pay taxes. We utilize data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Study, encompassing 23 OECD economies from 1995 to 2018. Our findings indicate that the tax morale of citizens who hold right-wing ideological views in relation to their government significantly decreases when the public sector surpasses the OECD average. Conversely, citizens who hold left-wing ideological views in relation to their government exhibit a higher intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, particularly when the public sector is considered undersized.