Is there a theoretical basis for subsidizing employment in low-income regions? A two-region model is analyzed where there is migration of labour between regions, costs of migration, and unemployment in the low-income region. Workers migrate according to the expected wage net of the cost of...

In 1989 the government of Sri Lanka appointed a commission to undertake a comprehensive analysis of its tax system. The commission completed its work in 1990 and published its findings in the Report of The Taxation Commission, 1990, Sessional paper No. 1- June 1991. This report is a...

International trade theorists recently have rediscovered a possibility, pointed many years ago by F.Y. Edgeworth, that growth in an open economy might actually decrease the welfare of the community. According to Bhagwati, immiserization could occur as the result of growth only in the presence of...

This paper examines some implications for Ontario of the increases in domestic energy prices, especially oil prices, that are expected to occur in the 1980s. We argue some reallocation of economic activity away from Ontario towards Alberta is called for, but is quite small. It is likely there...

Indirect taxes currently account for more than 50 percent of the government of Zambia’s non-capital recurrent revenues. For 1990, it is estimated that customs duties accounted for about 25 per cent of total indirect taxes, with import sales amounting to 34 per cent, local sales taxes 18 per...

A classic argument in the theory of crime is that optimal enforcement policy should involve maximal sanctions combined with minimal detection costs. Yet this is rarely observed in the real world. We argue that reson for this has to do with the time inconsistency of such a policy. If sanctions...

This paper investigates the efficiency argument for a vertical fiscal gap in a federation using a simple model of a central government and several identical states. Each level provides a public good to residents within its jurisdiction and finances it by taxing labour income and rents. If labour...

Evasion and time inconsistency have been prominent concerns in recent discussions capital income taxation, both theoretical and applied. This paper establishes a link between them, suggesting a potentially useful role for evasion additional to those previously identified: by committing to...