More responsible tax-payers and more transparent local institutions. The Center for Economic Analyses (CEA), through a project supported by the EU, has tried to identify ways to achieve this double goal by changing the way the two parties communicate. The initial results are encouraging.

A project carried out in 2020 by the Skopje-based Center for Economic Analyses (CEA), with the help of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), has shown that citizens are keener on paying local taxes if their municipalities, instead of only sending reminders or warnings, approach them with messages that also call on their sense of personal values and social responsibility.

The project was implemented in – and with support from – three municipalities in North Macedonia. It included a social media campaign about tax responsibility, and also revealed another interesting detail: female tax-payers react more to reminders based on an appeal to values and males to the ‘classic’ reminders.