Gender differences in deception behaviour – the role of the counterpart

Abstract

In a tax compliance experiment with real face-to-face communication between declaring subjects and officers, we analyse the role of both the subject’s and the officer’s gender for deceptive behaviour. We do not find, first, that the amount of underreporting generally depends on the officer’s gender, and second, that the matching of genders plays a role for the deceptive behaviour. Moreover, as a reaction to a high rather than a low penalty, women and men both reduce deceptive behaviour to the same extent and therefore exhibit the same risk-taking attitude.