The Relation among Voice Value, Policy Outcomes, and Intensity of Support on Fairness Assessments of Tax Legislation

Abstract

ABSTRACT: We conduct a quasi-experiment to determine whether the value placed on a taxpayer's opinion by an elected representative (valued or not valued) has an impact on the taxpayer's procedural and outcome fairness perceptions. We also examine how the taxpayer's intensity of support for the tax legislation interacts with both the value the elected representative placed on the taxpayer's voiced opinion and whether the taxpayer's preferred policy outcome is ultimately passed in a representative democracy. We recruited 92 participants from graduate accounting classes and assigned them to four experimental groups based on whether the elected officials valued their opinion, and whether their desired legislation was passed. As predicted, perceptions of fairness are more positively associated with receiving a desired outcome as intensity of support for an issue increases. Further, we find that taxpayers who do not have a strong intensity of support for a particular legislative position react favorably to having their voice valued by legislators. However, for those taxpayers who feel most passionate about a legislative issue, having their voice valued may provide limited benefits, if any at all. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors on request.