How do firms form preferences on tax policy?

Last registered on July 08, 2020

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Fiscal policy constraints and firm expectations

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0006117

Initial registration date

July 04, 2020

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

July 08, 2020, 5:13 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

Germany

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Davud Rostam-Afschar

Affiliation

University of Mannheim

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2020-07-06

End date

2020-08-21

Keywords

Firms & Productivity, Welfare

Additional Keywords

Firm behavior, government support, crisis management, large-scale survey, firm heterogeneity, uncertainty

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

In the first few months of 2020 the COVID-19 outbreak developed to an unprecedented pandemic. Governments were forced to implement drastic measures like physical distancing and travel bans to contain the disease. It became quickly clear that this situation has led to a major global economic downturn and as such not only a threat to lives but also to the means of living for many: In particular providers of personal services and owners of small businesses seem affected, though the extent of the disruptive economic impact of COVID-19 is not yet entirely clear. The main objectives of this project are to learn i) how effective government support for firms of different sizes and in different industries is, ii) which policies look most promising and are most urgently required for a quick recovery of the economy from the firms perspectives, and iii) to assess the longer-term prospects of firm behavior in domains like firm survival, investments, or labor demand. We evaluate strategies of firms to cope with the crisis and expectations about government interventions with focus on tax policy.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Rostam-Afschar, Davud. 2020. "Fiscal policy constraints and firm expectations." AEA RCT Registry. July 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6117-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We implement a survey with a set of questions in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.
The survey includes two information experiments with four randomized treatment arms each.

Fiscal constraints experiment:
i) Control group: no information provided
ii) Fiscal constraint I: information about the cost of government intervention highlighting past examples of tax increases after economic crises and aim of German politicians to repay debts until 2030.
iii) Fiscal constraint II: same as Fiscal constraint I but with question on how justified government intervention is.
iv) Need for intervention: information about the cost of government intervention highlighting the deterioration of the economic situation of businesses.

All treatment information in this experiment are presented as text.

Uncertainty experiment:
i) Control group: no information provided
ii) Optimistic outlook: information about an optimistic scenario published by the German Council of Economic Experts
iii) Pessimistic outlook: information about a pessimistic scenario published by the German Council of Economic Experts
iv) Uncertain outlook: information about both the optimistic and the pessimistic scenarios published by the German Council of Economic Experts

All treatment information in this experiment are presented as text and figures.

Intervention Start Date

2020-07-06

Intervention End Date

2020-08-21

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

i) expected changes in tax rates in the short run (next 12 months)

ii) expected changes in tax rates in the medium run (next 12-24 months)

iii) optimal tax rate from firm's perspective for government support of firms

iv) investment plans in the short run (next 12 month)

v) investment plans in the medium run (next 12-24 months)

vi) hiring plans in the short run (next 12 months)

vii) hiring plans in the medium run (next 12-24 months)

viii) expected survival of firms in the same industry

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Our outcome variables are elicited through survey answers that follow the randomized survey experiment

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

See also "Interventions" described above.

The first information treatment targets directly expectations about future tax policy. We randomly assign 1/4 of the participants to receive information on the costs of the government intevention highlighting examples where tax increases followed economic crises and that German politicians aim to repay all debts by 2030, another 1/4 get the same information with an question on how justified this government intervention is. The next 1/4 of the participants receive information on the costs of the government support package, the deterioration of the economic situation of businesses and a question on how justified this government intervention is. The remainder 1/4 serves as control group.

Investment and hiring plans as well as expected firm survival depend not only on expected tax policy but also on uncertainty. We randomly assign 1/4 of the participants to receive information on an optimistic scenario for recovery taken from the German council of economic advisors, another 1/4 to a pessimistic scenario, and 1/4 to both the optimistic and the pessimistic scenarios. The remainder 1/4 serves as control group.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization is implemented via the survey software Qualtrics

Randomization Unit

Firm

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

The Treatments are not clustered. See below for the number of observed firms.

Sample size: planned number of observations

We approach approximately 600,000 firms and invite them to participate in our survey. We expect a response rate between 0.5 an 5%. For example, a response rate of 1% would imply that we have 6,000 independent firm-level observations.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Even distribution of observations across the four treatment arms, respectively.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB