How Taxing Is Tax Filing? Using Revealed Preferences to Estimate Compliance Costs
利用美国纳税人在分项扣除与标准扣除之间的选择，通过显示性偏好方法估算报税合规成本，发现成本随收入增加且远高于以往调查估计。
This paper uses a quasi-experimental design to estimate the cost of filing taxes. Using US tax returns, I observe how taxpayers choose between itemizing deductions and claiming the standard deduction. Taxpayers forgo large tax savings to avoid compliance costs, which provides a revealed preference estimate of such costs. I show that costs increase with income, consistent with an opportunity cost of time explanation. These estimates suggest substantial costs of filing federal income taxes, significantly larger than previously estimated using surveys.