This paper develops and calibrates a simple general equilibrium model with two types of labor and capital for the French economy. The simulation results indicate that targeted reductions in employer social security taxes have six times as large an effect on employment as untargeted reductions...

Risks to macroeconomic stability posed by excessive private leverage are significantly amplified by tax distortions. 'Debt bias' (tax provisions favoring finance by debt rather than equity) has increased leverage in both the household and corporate sectors, and is now widely recognized as a...

This paper examines the methodological issues arising in the measurement of the distributional impact of tax and expenditure policies, with emphasis on the problems related to the measurement of the impact of adjustment programs on the welfare of the poor. Both conceptual and empirical...

The incentives for domestic investment in debtor countries are influenced by the terms of their external obligations and by the system of taxation utilized to provide government revenue for debt payments. It is well known that existing debt contracts could be altered to improve the incentives...

The earmarking (or setting aside) of revenues from various taxes for specific types of expenditure is a much maligned fiscal practice. The paper examines a number of theoretical arguments and institutional circumstances under which earmarking (even widespread earmarking) may be welfare...

The paper distinguishes between three different channels through which fiscal policy changes may be transmitted to exchange rates. Based on both the balance of payments identity and empirical observations, it is argued that trade balances and exchange rates may be quite responsive to changes in...

This paper explores the nature, significance and policy implications of spillovers in international corporate taxation-the effects of one country's rules and practices on others. It complements current initiatives focused on tax avoidance by multinationals, notably the G20-OECD project on Base...

Under the assumption of no arbitrage exchange rate target zone credibility is tested by whether domestic interest rates fall within “rate-of-return bands” between the maximum and minimum home-currency rate of return on a foreign investment absent a devaluation. Under the assumption of...

This paper develops a political-economy model of the budget process focusing on the common pool problem of the public budget. We show that the externality arising from the fact that public spending tends to be targeted at individual groups in society while the tax burden is widely dispersed...

This paper examines the impact of trade costs on real exchange rate volatility. We incorporate a multi-country Ricardian model of trade, based on the work of Eaton and Kortum (2002), into a macroeconomic model to show how bilateral real exchange rate volatility depends on relative technological...