13/1/2012: The need for political reforms

An interesting paper from the World Bank (linked here), by Torgler, Benno, titled "Tax Morale and Compliance: Review of Evidence and Case Studies for Europe" (December 1, 2011). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Series, 2011 (World Bank Policy research Working Paper 5922) presents an overview of the literature on tax morale and tax compliance. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it finds that accountability, democratic governance, efficient and transparent legal structures, and crucially, "trust within the society" are important in enforcing tax compliance and tax morale.

Which offers an interesting point for observation: in 2011, trust in Irish system of government as measured by the Edelman Trust Barometer stood at 20%, against the average of 52% for 23 countries surveyed in the report, making Ireland the lowest ranked country in the study. 


But things are even worse than the above number suggests: 

• Ireland ranks lowest 23rd in terms of average trust measures across four institutions of government, media, business and NGOs
• The above result is driven by: high trust in NGOs at 53%, although this is still below global trust in NGOs at 61%, high trust in business at 46% against global trust in business at 56%, low trust in media at 38% and abysmally low trust in government.

So may be, just may be, folks, in order to improve our fiscal performance we need deep political and leadership changes at least as much as tax increases and spending cuts? Perhaps, one of the problems with Irish fiscal crisis response to date is that the current Government and its predecessor are not doing enough to make Ireland's elites more accountable, more transparent, and better governed? There's an old Russian saying that every fish rots from the head (although Chinese, British and other nations claim the origin of this phrase as well).