Research Seminar on Diversity and Development Michael T. Dorsch, Anand Murugesan"History, Trust in Institutions, and Regulatory Compliance"
HSE International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development (ICSID) and NES Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interactions are pleased to announce their next joint Research Seminar on Diversity and Development. The event is held jointly with the seminar “Political Economy”.
Michael T. Dorsch (CEU) and Anand Murugesan (CEU) will present their paper “History, Trust in Institutions, and Regulatory Compliance”.
The seminar will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20, 2021.
Working language of the seminar is English.
Abstract: What are the historical determinants of current levels of trust in public institutions? Does historically rooted trust explain individuals' compliance with government regulations? To evaluate these questions, we examine the effect of historical Habsburg rule on contemporary levels of public trust and a variety of compliance outcomes. We have conducted online surveys in cities within Italy and Austria treated with the Habsburg rule for varying lengths of time. In Italy, we select cities without any Habsburg rule to compare with neighboring cities with some length of rule (50 to 150 years) or regions under a long reign (300 - 600 years). We use list-experiments (or the item-count technique) to elicit trust and compliance behavior, as well as self-reported measures of other individual-level covariates. As compliance outcomes, we study bribery, tax evasion, and COVID-19 related restrictions. For tax compliance, we introduce a novel behavioral choice in the survey -- signing up for free expert tax consultation vs. receiving a less valuable Amazon gift card -- that elicits revealed preference for tax compliance. As we have data only from the first round of surveys, we have only preliminary results to share. Our focus in the seminar will be on results that relate to income tax compliance.
The seminar will be held online: https://zoom.us/j/98207901567
If you have any questions please contact Valeria Kotelnikova (vkotelnikova@hse.ru)
We look forward to seeing you!
Kind regards,
ICSID and NES CSDSI