(Sub)National Identity and Tax Evasion April 2025
The Economics research group welcomes Dr Diego Zambiasi.
He will present his work, entitled "(Sub)National Identity and Tax Evasion."
About the speaker
Diego has been a lecturer in Economics at Newcastle University Business School since January 2022. He is an applied microeconomist whose research focuses on the economics of crime and the economics of migration.
Prior to joining Newcastle University he obtained a PhD from University College Dublin. During his PhD, he visited the CLEAN Unit for the Economic Analysis of Crime at Bocconi University.
He holds a MSc in Economics from the University of the Basque Country, a Master’s in Economics and Management of the Public Sector from the Free University of Bolzano, and a Bachelor in Philosophy from the State University of Milan.
Research abstract
This paper examines how subnational identity and political ideology shape tax compliance, focusing on the role of the Northern League in Italy. As a federalist and anti-establishment party, it has historically promoted narratives against national taxation. We analyze its impact on tax compliance by studying evasion of the national TV tax (RAI license fee), leveraging a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) approach with the doubly robust Callaway and Sant’Anna estimator. Our findings show that the mere participation of the Northern League in local elections significantly increases tax evasion by 0.22%, even in the absence of an electoral victory.
To disentangle the underlying mechanisms, we first ask whether the effect is driven by populism or federalism, distinguishing between anti-establishment rhetoric and opposition to national taxation. Second, we examine media exposure, assessing how partisan TV and national newspaper exposure amplify tax resistance. Third, we consider grassroots mobilization, looking at how local anti-tax campaigns directly engage citizens. Finally, we analyze territorial identity and socioeconomic heterogeneity, exploring how regional ties and economic conditions shape responses.