Drivers of Support for Commuter Tax Allowance Reforms - Social Fairness, Environmental Concerns or Own Financial Interests?

In Germany and several other European countries, taxpayers can deduct from their income the cost of commuting between their home and first place of work. The specific design of such a commuter tax allowance has far-reaching implications for personal finances, social fairness, and environmental impact and is therefore the subject of a broad debate in many countries, including Germany. In a survey experiment among 3,000 participants in Germany, we assess participants’ beliefs about the current regulation in terms of social fairness, environmental impact, and own financial interests and how these beliefs relate to the support for different reform options. In addition, we provide a randomly assigned subset of participants with information about the social fairness and environmental impact of the current regulation and assess how the information provided affects beliefs about the current regulation, acceptance, and beliefs about the different reform options.