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Tax evasion has been mainly studied as a problem of choice under uncertainty (Allingham and Sandmo 1972): like any portfolio manager, the taxpayer has to allocate herhis fixed gross income between two assets: a risky asset, tax evasion, and a safe asset (with a zero return). tax payment. Tax evasion activity is risky because there is a certain probability that tax evasion will be discovered and punished. As suggested by the portfolio theory, the taxpayer's choice will be affected by herhis preferences, -mainly by herhis attitude towards risktaking -and by the return on the risky asset determined by the tax structure, which includes both the tax rate and the penalties in the case of evasion.However, the pure gamble model appears unsatisfactory on various grounds. Among these and most importantly for our purpose, it neglects the psychological aspects of the decision to evade tax because it rules out any feeling of shame about evading or being detected and punished, and it ignores any intrinsic pleasure from successful evasion. In other words, the pure gamble model does not take full account of the moral constraints involved in the tax evasion decision.The main objective of the experiment presented here was therefore to investigate the role played by moral constraints in determining the decision to evade taxes. This includes not only monetary elements but also psychological and moral factors in the taxpayer's decisional process.The paper is organised as follows. In Section 11, 111 and IV we present the traditional approach to the tax evasion problem and propose an extension of the

External validity is the problem of generalizing results from laboratory to non-laboratory conditions. In this paper we review various ways in which the problem can be tackled, depending on the kind of experiment one is doing. Using a concrete example, we highlight in particular the distinction between external validity and robustness, and point out that many experiments are not aimed at a well-specified real-world target but rather contribute to a 'library of robust phenomena', a body of experimental knowledge to be applied case by case.experiments, methodology, theory and evidence, external validity, pure and applied science,