Essays in Public Finance and Development Economics
View/ Open
Naritomi_gsas.harvard_0084L_11504.pdf (1.322Mb)
Access Status
Full text of the requested work is not available in DASH at this time ("restricted access"). For more information on restricted deposits, see our FAQ.Author
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Naritomi, Joana. 2014. Essays in Public Finance and Development Economics. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University.Abstract
This dissertation comprises three chapters. The first chapter investigates whether consumers can help governments improve firm compliance with the Value Added Tax. It exploits quasi-experimental variation from a government program from Sao Paulo, Brazil that created monetary rewards for consumers to ask for receipts. To assess how incentives to consumers can be effective despite potential collusion opportunities, I construct datasets for 1 million firms, 40 million consumers, and 2.7 billion receipts. I estimate that revenue reported in retail increased by at least 22% over four years. The estimated compliance effect is stronger for sectors with a high volume of transactions and small receipt values, consistent with a model in which there are fixed costs to negotiate collusive deals to avoid issuing receipts. Furthermore, the effect has an inverted-U shape with respect to firm size. This result is consistent with a model of higher baseline compliance among larger firms, and in which shifts in audit probability from consumer monitoring increase in firm size. I find no effects on exit rates or formal employment decisions.Citable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12274276
Collections
- FAS Theses and Dissertations [6566]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)