We study how the tax morale of individuals is influenced by societal diversity in their place of residence. Using data from the World Value Survey, we compare the effects that diversity has on self-reported measures of tax morale at the national, sub-national and individual level. We show first that, both across countries and within countries across sub-national regions, greater diversity is associated with lower average levels of tax morale. We then document that within countries and regions tax morale is lower among individuals who are less similar to others and this effect operates more strongly in places characterized by higher levels of diversity. This pattern applies to diversity in terms of different social cleavages, including income, ethnicity, language or religion, but is particularly pronounced when it comes to diversity in terms of cultural values. This suggests that social identification is important for how people perceive their responsibility of paying taxes.

我们研究个人的税收士气如何受到居住地社会多样性的影响。使用世界价值调查的数据，我们比较了多样性对国家、次国家和个人层面自我报告的税收士气指标的影响。我们首先表明，无论是在国家之间还是在国家内部的次国家地区，更大的多样性与较低的平均税收士气水平相关。然后我们记录了在国家和地区内，与其他人不太相似的个人的税收士气较低，并且这种效应在具有较高多样性水平的地方更为强烈。这种模式适用于不同社会分裂的多样性，包括收入、种族、语言或宗教，但在文化价值观的多样性方面尤为明显。这表明社会认同对于人们如何看待自己的纳税责任很重要。