不論是坊間或專業團體所發布的數據、圖表、民調等資料都可以發現，當台灣地方政府面臨債務餘額逐年增加的同時，地方民眾仍支持政府舉辦大型活動，此即為財政幻覺的具體表徵。本論文研究之動機，便是想探討民眾是否受到政府支出的誘惑，進而支持政府過度發行公債以達成政府過度支出的情形。 文獻回顧的部分，除了介紹財政幻覺基本經濟模型外，還有介紹財政幻覺實證研究結果。接續財政幻覺介紹之後，討論台灣地方政府自有財源不足但民眾仍支持開銷龐大項目的現象。此部分並引入目前台灣地方政府各種大型活動之預算以及活動支出概況數據表格，顯示出台灣地方政府的大型活動開銷金額支龐大。文獻回顧最後，介紹行為財政學與行為經濟學之應用，並利用行為財政學之模型作為此篇論文的理論模型。 經濟模型的部份，討論跨期模型時，把誘惑因素以及利他因素加入至模型中，並求解民眾在第一、二期受到利他與誘惑這兩者之間抗衡的結果。模型推論最後發現，就減少第一期舉債數量來看，單獨只有誘惑因素影響，沒有明顯之效果；但是只有利他因素的影響，效果比同時考慮誘惑、利他因素的結果還要有效。這表示利他因素對於抑制政府舉債數量有一定之影響力。 本論文最後提到研究之限制，為理論模型尚且未能充分反應台灣真實狀況，期許未來學術研究能夠引入台灣的數據資料，為台灣地方政府政策研究貢獻一份心力。 / One of the most notable developments in recent Taiwan’s local public finance is to witness the growing size of debts and the growing popularity among constituency of those governments. To coin the term of fiscal illusion, most conventional literature takes the complexity of the taxation system as the major driving factor. Empirical studies are also surveyed in the thesis to compare to the phenomena in Taiwan. We use the stylized facts of Taiwan’s local spending to justify the use of a behavioral public finance model. Specifically, we develop a simple dynamic model incorporating bequest, debt financing, payroll tax with an unique temptation effect to address fiscal illusion. The findings show that bequest motive dominates the temptation effect in curbing debt financing.

Fiscal illusion is understood to be a concept that occurs where taxpayers do not always realize how much they contribute towards government revenue in the form of taxation, or how much they receive in the form of public goods and services (Dell’ Ánno&Mourao, 2011:2). The purpose of this study was to discover the originating causes of fiscal illusion amongst individual taxpayers in South Africa. To achieve this objective, available literature was reviewed, which revealed that complexity of the tax systems is argued to be one of the causes of fiscal illusion. A study conducted in South Africa suggested that taxpayer’s perception toward tax affects their attitude (Oberholzer, 2007:45). The hypothesis derived from the literature was then applied to a real life context by conducting interviews with a sample of individual taxpayers. Based on the analysis of data obtained, the study revealed that fiscal illusion of individual taxpayers in South Africa falls within four conceptual elements namely, hidden taxes, number of taxes, double taxation and, to a limited extent, tax shifting. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Taxation / unrestricted