Study title

A controlled laboratory experiment, where we test the impact of a negative emotion environment, as well as the opportunity to misreport/make mistakes, in order to understand the causal effect of negative emotions on the likelihood of error in a real effort task. It has been well documented in the literature that customers experience negative emotions following an unsatisfactory service or even a service failure. Emotions, especially, negative emotions have been shown to affect decision making. It is plausible that by triggering negative emotions, the quality of service may have an impact on customers’ behavior. Negative emotions may adversely impact one’s ability to carry out subsequent tasks, by reducing cognitive ability, making one more prone to errors.Good tax design and administration are central to the functioning of the economy. Taxes are important determinants of economic behaviour, and good implementation can significantly increase economic and social welfare. The role of the Tax Administration Research Centre is to deliver research that enhances tax policy and provides lasting benefit to the economy. There are many research tools that can contribute to this goal but the greatest success will be achieved by combining a range of research methodologies and disciplines. The Centre will unite researchers from two institutions with distinguished reputations for research into tax administration and tax design. Complementary abilities and methodologies will be brought together to address a wide range of intersecting research projects. The research methodologies will include economic modelling, econometric analysis, experimentation, numerical simulation, and qualitative analysis. In undertaking its work the Centre will make extensive use of the HMRC/HMT Datalab to permit innovative empirical work to be undertaken. Some examples of the research projects to be conducted at the Centre are: Risk-based auditing and taxpayers' responses will investigate the reaction...