Governments pursue fiscal decentralization for a variety of reasons: to make government more responsive and accountable to the people, to increase the efficiency of the public sector, and to promote national cohesion. Generally speaking, public sector economists emphasize the accountability and...

The Report on the Bihar Panchayat Raj Institution Finance Study examines the autonomy, capacity, and accountability of local self-governments in the State of Bihar. This report is based on data collected from a set of 3 surveys conducted on a stratified random sample of 5 Zila Parishads, 10...

Examines the impact of marginal tax rates, which incorporate the earned income tax credit as it existed in 1988, on the reporting of income by low-level taxpayers. Concludes that the amount of income underreported does not appear to be affected by the relatively high marginal tax rates which...

Researchers often rely on self–reported tax data to gauge the effect of taxes on economic activity. These data, however, are subject to measurement errors in the presence of tax evasion. We find evidence that estimated income and tax price elasticities are biased due to errors–in variables...

This paper examines the compliance pattern of small businesses, using pooled 1985 and 1988 Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program (TCMP) data. Specifically, we focus on the voluntary reporting compliance of income from proprietorship, farm, and rental real estate activities. We find that...

There is perhaps no more important question in public finance than who ultimately bears the burden of a tax. According to tax incidence theory, the long-run incidence of a tax in competitive markets is independent of the assignment of the liability to pay tax. Moreover, the theory is silent on...

This study sheds light on the difficulties people face in cooperating to resist coercion. We adapt a threshold public goods game to investigate whether people are able to cooperate to resist coercion despite individual incentives to free-ride. Behavior in this resistance game is similar to that...

In this paper, we examine the theoretical and empirical implications of accounting for multiple modes of tax evasion. We find that increasing the probability of detection in a given mode has an ambiguous effect on compliance in the targeted mode as well as the untargeted mode. In order to gain...

This paper attempts to overcome the lack of comparable data on the external indebtedness of the industrial countries by constructing consistent time series of data on external debt and the overall international investment position of these countries. As well as classifying external assets and...