Economia comportamental para conformidade fiscal: seleção e caracterização de estudos experimentais sobre uso e aplicação de nudges (“cutucadas” na decisão)

Abstract

This research aimed to evaluate the impact caused by nudges in field experiments, conducted in distinct locations, in order to verify if these behavioral tools have an impact on tax compliance and if they should be applied by tax administrations to help combat tax evasion. Government policies have been experimenting nudges to help people make better decisions in their lives. Nudges are simple and low-cost forms of incentives, capable of changing people's behavior in a predict way, without prohibiting other options, and can be used to inform, correct evaluation errors, avoid failures and direct them towards the best choices. In consonance with the theory of nudges and bounded rationality, several experiments were made in the tax area around the world. Due to the growing number of studies already published in this area, this research used the selection and characterization of studies to assess the impact of these incentives on tax compliance, as well as to characterize the selected studies. As a result, 29 studies were selected for bibliometric analysis and verification and observed their results. The bibliometric analisys showed that 18 selected studies are paper, 9 articles, 1 study and 1 booklet, distributed across all continents, with 19 studies in the area of Economics and 12 published between 2020 and 2021. In the study, it was observed that the synthesis showed that nudges are effective tools, as they have had an impact on tax compliance. More than 66% of applied nudges brought statistically significant results. Dissuasive nudges produced a greater change in behavior, both in taxpayer responses and in the magnitude of the results achieved. The impact of the nudges caused an increase in the tax payment rate of 2.2pp (percentage points) and in the declaration rate of 3.7pp, in comparison to the control group, considering the median of the values of the increment rate observed in the studies selected. The nudges sensibilize both the behavior of individuals and legal entities, but it was not possible, a priori, to define which type of taxpayers had the best response to the incentive. The selected studies were produced in different social and economic contexts, involving countries in Europe, Africa, the Americas, Oceania, and Asia. It was observed that, regardless of the location of the experiment, there was a response from taxpayers to incentives in general. Financial returns were reported in addition. All reported results are important for tax administrations, who have the opportunity to learn about the theme and create programs to help combat tax evasion, with cost reduction and financial gains. Finally, it is concluded that nudges are important tools to help government policies, since they are able to influence human behavior and improve tax compliance.