The Impact of Gender on Tax Compliance in Southern Albania

We examine whether gender influences tax compliance among self-employed taxpayers in Southern Albania — an economy characterized by a large informal sector and uneven enforcement. Using administrative data on 500 taxpayers in Fier, Vlorë, Berat, Gjirokastër, and Sarandë (January 2022 – March 2025), we estimate the likelihood of timely payment with logistic and probit models and study unpaid liabilities using linear regression. Female-led businesses are more likely to meet deadlines and hold lower unpaid debts than male-led firms. These differences persist across sectors after controlling for firm size, region, income, and time. A negative and significant Gender × Sector term indicates that sectoral composition does not offset women’s compliance advantage. Conceptually, the evidence aligns with a behavioral view of tax payment: gender operates not only as a demographic trait but also as a predictor of fiscal behavior, consistent with tax morale and the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985; Torgler, 2003). The effect size is relatively large for an environment with imperfect monitoring, suggesting that moral norms, reputational concerns, and perceived control weigh more heavily where deterrence is limited. From a policy perspective, adding gender into compliance-risk models and tailoring taxpayer services provides a low-cost, high-impact way to increase voluntary payments and reduce arrears. To our knowledge, this is the first study in Albania using official administrative microdata to analyze gendered tax behavior, addressing a clear empirical gap in Southeastern Europe and providing direct evidence relevant to fair, inclusive fiscal policy harmonized with the EU.