In New Zealand, excise taxes are levied on three commodity groups: alcohol, tobacco and petrol. The 2001 Tax Review, published by the New Zealand Treasury, argued that excises are inequitable and inefficient, and advised that these taxes should be removed and the revenue replaced by raising the...

Extensive research has shown that few robust results regarding the optimal tax structure are available. Moreover, the stylised models used in optimal tax analyses are not appropriate for practical policy advice. This paper proposes a method of examining optimal marginal income tax reforms using...

This paper examines indirect tax reform in Australia using the method developed by Anmad and Stern (1984). It is usual, incalculating the changes in demand that would result from marginal tax reform, to use aggregate own- and cross-price demand elasticities.

Tax compliance is modelled as a Bayesian Nash equilibrium in a costly state verification game with imperfect auditing. Neither the tax payer nor the auditor can measure the tax payer's true liability precisely: they observe independent noisy signals.

The welfare effects of several indirect tax reforms in Australia are examined for a number of types of household in a range of income groups. The welfare changes, measured using equivalent variations, are based on the use of the linear expenditure system, where parameters are different in each...

This paper examines the question of whether indirect tax rates should be uniform using four different modelling strategies. First, marginal tax reform is examined. Second, the welfare effects of a partial shift from the current indirect tax system in Australia towards a goods and services tax...

This paper examines the question of the extent to which redistribution can be achieved using a structure of consumption taxes differential rates and exemptions. A local measure of progression, that of liability progression (equivalent to the revenue elasticity) is examined. Results are obtained...

This paper tests a version of Barro's tax smoothing hypothesis using Australian data for the period 1964/65 to 194/95. The model assumes intertemporal optimisation by a government ssking to minimise the distortionary effects of tax collection.

India has a long history of running fiscal deficits. Two broad considerations motivate a government to run a deficit: tax smoothing and tax tilting. This paper tests a version of Barro's tax smoothing model, using Indian data for the period 1951-52 to 1966-97. The empirical results indicate that...

Tax models come in all shapes and sizes, depending on the nature of the policy issues examined. The policy questions may relate to specific problems, concerning perhaps the revenue implications of a particular tax, or they may involve an extensive analysis of the cost and redistributice effects...