Tax Burden, defined as the ratio of total tax revenues over personal income, is prominently used to summarize state tax policy. We analyze the empirical relationship between changes in Tax Burden and changes in state tax policy from 1987 to 2000 – as measured by states’ own forecasts of the...

This paper aims at discussing the main features of Spain’s tax system, its recent reforms and those underway. The current state of the main taxes, their future reforms are studied starting from 1975, when Spain shifted to democracy. Direct taxes, indirect taxes and social security...

The purpose of this paper is to survey the theoretical literature on wealth transfer taxation. The focus is normative: we are looking at the design of an optimal tax structure from the standpoint of both equity and efficiency. The gist of this survey is that the optimal design closely depends on...

A strand of recent literature shows that a reform of import tariff (export tax) and consumption tax (production tax) that keeps the consumer (producer) price unchanged enhances welfare and increases revenue under plausible conditions. It has been argued that the results provide an ex-post...

This paper uses a dynamic general equilibrium model to study the economic effects of bank account debits (BAD) taxation. Australia and various Latin American countries have levied or levy BAD taxes. Aspects such as financial disintermediation, market illiquidity, and impacts on dividend and...

Este trabalho tem como objetivo estudar os impactos econômicos da CPMF na economia brasileira, e para isto está dividido em três blocos. No primeiro a CPMF é analisada sob a ótica da teoria econômica. No segundo é discutida a experiência internacional com impostos similares à CPMF. No...

Though widespread, the practice of public subsidies for cultural activity lacks a rigorous and consistent economic rationale. We analyze a canonical market structure that characterizes much cultural activity: the competition of mass-produced goods with heterogeneous non- standardized goods that...

This paper surveys a selection of the literature on the private provision of public goods using the Kolm triangle. (The Kolm triangle is the analogue of an Edgeworth box in an economy with a public good.) We provide simple geometrical proofs of various established results using this graphical...

The current consensus on indirect tax reform in developing countries favors a reduction in trade taxes with an increase in VAT to raise revenue. The theoretical results on selective reform that underlie this consensus are, however, derived from partial models that ignore the existence of an...

This work is focused on identifying the relationship an economic system and its policies have with the environment. The biosphere is chosen in particular as object of analysis but this can be extended by means of an ecosystem recursive properties. The common factor involved in the relationship...