‘Nudging’ Voluntary Compliance in Border Customs

Legal and regulatory compliance can be voluntarily motivated or enforced by authorities. The World Customs Organization Voluntary Compliance Frameworks (WCO VCF) is adopting a reward and punishment system, responsive to economic constraints of compliance. However, psychological elements do not appear to be incorporated. The WCO VCF could employ ‘norm nudge’ and ‘deterrence nudge’ as supplementary tools in responding to different client risk types, analogous to the effective application of nudge incentivization in taxation compliance. Similarly, it could help improve voluntary self-declaration of goods at the border crossing.