Tax Evasion, Welfare Fraud, and "The Broken Windows" Effect: An Experiment in Belgium, France and the Netherlands

In a series of experiments conducted in Belgium (Wallonia and Flanders), France and the Netherlands, we compare behavior regarding tax evasion and welfare dodging, with and without information about others' behavior. Subjects have to decide between a "registered" income, the realization of which will be known to the tax authority for sure, and an "unregistered" income that will only be known with some probability. This unregistered income comes from self-employment in the Tax treatment and from black labor supplementing some unemployment compensation in the Welfare treatment. Subjects have then to decide on wether reporting their income or not, knowing the risk od detection. The results show that (i) individuals evade more in the Welfare treatment than in the Tax treatment ; (ii) many subjects choose and option that allows for tax evasion or welfare fraud but report their income honestly anyway ; (iii) examples of low compliance tend to increase tax evasion while examples of high compliance exert no influence ; (iv) tax evasion is more frequent in France and the Netherlands ; Wallons evade taxes less than Flemish. There is no cross-country difference in welfare dodging.

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Field Value
Source https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00948296
Author Lefebvre, Mathieu, Pestieau, Pierre, Riedl, Arno, Villeval, Marie Claire
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 6, 2026, 08:34 (UTC)
Created May 6, 2026, 08:34 (UTC)
Identifier halshs-00948296
Language en
Rights https://about.hal.science/hal-authorisation-v1/
contributor Center of Research in Public Economics and Population Economics (CREPP) ; Université de Liège = University of Liège = Universiteit van Luik = Universität Lüttich (ULiège)
creator Lefebvre, Mathieu
date 2011-05-06T00:00:00
harvest_object_id 07467a14-90d6-4fa9-8521-6a3f17a58dbf
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2026-04-23T00:00:00
set_spec type:UNDEFINED