Is tax evasion macho?Testosterone,personality traits and evasion

This paper examines the potential effects of testosterone and personality traits on the decision to evade taxes.In a series of experiments,subjects completed behavioural tasks and made a one-shot tax evasion decision.We estimate a negative weakly significant treatment effect,which suggests that an exogenous increase in the testosterone level may inhibit the decision to evade taxes.Our results also suggest that higher dominance and independent self-construal,as well as lower self-control,are associated with a greater likelihood of tax evasion.We discuss the mechanisms potentially linking testosterone to tax evasion.These findings support the inclusion of biological factors in the analysis of tax evasion behaviour.