To complete the requirements of my doctoral degree, I selected the option of writing a three paper essay series in lieu of a traditional dissertation. The abstracts for each essay are presented in succession. Essay One: "Behavioral Tax Research: A Review and Prospective" My first essay is the literature review portion of my essay series, which motivated my second and third essays in the series. In this essay, I explore earlier reviews in behavioral, experimental tax research and continue forward to trace the evolution of ideas in the primary streams of research in this area. Essay Two: "IRS Oversight, Client Risk, and Tax Professionals: Does Increased Control Deter Aggressive Decision Making?" My second essay examines the impact of the new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) preparer oversight program on the decision making of tax professionals. Drawing on the tenets of deterrence and control theories, I examine decision making under low and high regulatory scrutiny. In summary, I find evidence, consistent with extant literature on control theory, that tax professionals increase the aggressiveness of their recommendations and report higher advocacy intentions when facing high IRS oversight. Essay Three: "Tax Professionals and Antecedents to Aggressive Decision Making: An Examination of Client Identification and Economic Importance" Motivated by the results of my second essay, my third essay examines why tax professionals may be willing to risk exposure to the increased costs of making aggressive recommendations for their clients. Thus, this essay examines the impact of two antecedents to aggressive decision-making, namely the role of the interpersonal relationship with the client (client identification) and the economic importance of the client, on the recommendations of tax professionals. Consistent with the tenets of Social Identity Theory, I find that stronger client identification leads to more aggressive recommendations and suggest that client identification is an important construct for future research in this area. Further, I find that a client's economic importance does not follow the presumed linear positive relationship with more aggressive recommendations. Rather the results suggest a nonlinear relationship between economic importance and aggressive recommendations, demonstrating a complex and multi-faceted response to economic importance.Ph.D., Business Administration -- Drexel University, 201
