| Abstract: | This study examines the determinants of tax morale in Ethiopia with emphasis on the moderating
roles of national pride and perceived fairness of fiscal exchange in the relationship between trust
in government and tax morale. By employing a correlation matrix, PROCESS Macro, and
hierarchical regression analyses, we examined the association between the independent variables
and the dependent variable as well as the moderating roles of national pride and fiscal exchange
on the effect of trust on tax morale. The correlation matrix revealed that the empirically
documented relationships between tax morale and such independent variables as gender,
corruption, and religiosity did not hold in this study as the correlations were found to be
insignificant. More importantly, however, we found support for our hypotheses that posit that
national pride and fiscal exchange moderate the effect of trust on tax morale. Nonetheless, the
moderating effects are opposite in that national pride moderates the effect of trust on tax morale
when it is at its high level, whereas fiscal exchange does the moderation when it is at its low
level. The findings imply interesting theoretical and policy inputs with data from a typical
developing country, Ethiopia. |
