Publication

This paper provides a comparison of tax morale between inhabitants of East and West Germany in its post-reunification period. The findings show higher tax morale in East than in West Germany. However, in only nine years after reunification, tax morale values strongly converged, especially due to a strong change in the level of tax morale in the East. The authors suggest that this convergence in tax morale between East and West Germany, despite efforts of the federal government to increase deterrence, indicates that tax morale is more strongly driven by other factors than deterrence.