Fairness Unchained : The determinants of a fair local tax burden

Abstract

The current socioeconomic paradigm of most modern societies clearly constraints the citizen’s capacity to conceive alternative economic models and their viability. Policy-qualifiers such as rigour or consistency are now tarnished by social views’ reinforcement through changing fairness connotations among communities. We put the spotlight on the municipality of l’Ametlla del Vallès to study the possible determinants behind a fair local tax contribution. Through a survey experiment and local administrative and tax records, we assess the possible relationship between a perceived fair local tax contribution and (1) the local tax burden, (2) public spending, (3) social position and (4) redistribution. We also control for the effect of information and some possible locally-based bias through a difference-in-difference treatment design. We do not find a causal relationship for the tax burden patterns, while satisfaction towards public services is found to be statistically significant. We also find evidence of a causal relationship for social position and redistribution views. The role of information is found not interfere in the allocation of a fair local contribution.