Projects

Standard economic theory of income taxation and redistribution
assume full tax compliance. However, tax evasion and tax avoidance
are substantial not only in developing countries but also in
industrialized economies. Sizeable tax gaps raise the important
question of the impact of tax noncompliance on equity and economic
efficiency.

The objective of this research project is twofold. First, we
study the impact of tax evasion and tax avoidance on macroeconomic
aggregates and the distribution of income and wealth. Second, we
discuss the policy implications of tax noncompliance for the taxation
of income.

To understand the theoretical mechanisms and to perform
policy experiments, we incorporate tax evasion and tax avoidance in
dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with heterogeneous
agents and incomplete insurance markets.

We organize our research project along three main topics. First, we study how the illegal
misreporting of income affects aggregate and distributional outcomes
and analyze tax reforms in the presence of tax evasion. Second, we
focus on the legal strategies that wealthy households employ in order
to reduce their tax liabilities. We explore the distributional implications
of tax avoidance by wealthy households and discuss the
consequences for the taxation of top income earners. Third, we focus
on tax avoidance by multinational corporate firms who shift their
profits to low-tax destinations. We study how international tax
avoidance by corporations affect aggregate economic outcomes and
discuss the implications for corporate taxation.

• Scholl, Almuth - Project head

• FB Wirtschaftswissenschaften