TITLE:
The Economic Recession Due to Age-Related Cognitive Bias: Survey Evidence of Reticence to Embrace Technology by the Senior Business and Political Elites in India
AUTHORS:
Debasish Majumder
KEYWORDS:
Compliance Burden, Disease Phobia, Misalignment between Theory and Techniques, Nowcasting, Purposive Sampling, Tax Non-Compliance, JEL Classification: H26, H3, D03, O33, E62
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.16 No.5,
August
31,
2026
ABSTRACT: Business and political elites are frequently observed to be elderly people belonging to the age group of 65 and above. Post-pandemic discourse refers to certain cognitive characteristics of elderlies as “negative” traits in leadership. Those characteristics include “worry about health matters”, “alcohol addiction” and “reticence to embrace technology”. We studied cognitive biases of elderly business and political elites in the specific type of activities, i.e., income tax/GST e-filing. In certain circumstances, for example, the in-house tax professional’s demise or the detection of a proliferative disease, the elite would have a necessity to learn the e-filing system. The end results have, however, been disappointing due to an inordinate delay in tax compliance. New tech-tax-advisers he employs are frequently witnessed exacerbating complicities. Furthermore, there is evidence of misalignment between economic theories and technical implementation methods across various sectors, including health care, agriculture, technology, crisis management, monetary policymaking, income tax and GST. The reticence to embrace technology in tax e-filing by elderly elites could be due to either the elderly’s cognitive biases or the sense of “social malaise” arises from the pursuit of gap, especially evolved post-February 2020, in the alliance between tax theories and their practical implementation methods. In case the senior taxpayer fails to meet his statutory obligations in tax e-filing, it could pose a risk to the self, his business and the broader economy as well.