VCOMP · Generating Voluntary Compliance Across Doctrines and Nations: Interlocking the Behavioral and Regulatory Aspects of Governments’ Ability to Trust Public' Cooperation, Ethicality and Compliance

The distinct advantages of enhancing the public’s voluntary compliance (VC) with regulations has made it an advantageous form of governance. However, its use is limited by the extent to which governments and regulators can trust the public without jeopardizing regulatory purposes and harming other social values. Identifying and analysing the antecedents of VC across doctrines and countries can enhance our theoretical understanding of the underlying nature of the interaction between countries and their residents, as well as evaluate the relative efficacy of behaviourally based regulatory tools. This project proposes, examines, and develops a new conceptual model and a methodology that will facilitate a systematic comparison of the relative efficacy across different doctrines and nations. This model will take into account national, organizational, situational, and individual factors and will draw on and combine material from the fields of organizational, situational, and individual factors and will draw on and combine material from the fields of Compliance, Regulation, Behavioural Public Policy, Behavioural Ethics, Trust & Social Norms on how to advance public VC. We will empirically explore if and to what extent VC and greater trustworthiness by the public can be achieved across countries (high vs. low trust) using regulatory tools such as nudges, pledges, incentives, sanctions, and morality in the context of the situations of tax, environment, COVID-19 and ethics. The comprehensive picture of VC that will emerge from this project will include not just effect sizes, but also factors such as the proportion of those who comply, the sustainability of compliance, the impact on social norms, and the likelihood of positive externalities (e.g., trust enhancement) following the enactment of a specific regulatory tool. Better insights into VC can help elucidate the descriptive and normative understanding of the nature of the interaction between countries and their residents.