This study has at its origin the land question in Paraguay, namely that land ownership is highly concentrated and has become a source of social conflict in the rural areas where one-half of the population lives. A central thesis of the study is that the existing patterns of land use and...

This study has at its origin the land question in Paraguay, namely that land ownership is highly concentrated and has become a source of social conflict in the rural areas where one-half of the population lives. A central thesis of the study is that the existing patterns of land use and...

This note provides an overview of the current property taxation system in the Punjab Province based on the premise that the property tax: 1) is essentially a fiscal tool; 2) is not an instrument of social redistribution; 3) system should be kept simple; and 4) is a technical instrument with...

Property taxation has a long tradition in Pakistan but the Urban Immovable Property Tax (UIPT) provides for only a small amount of revenues because of unclear local government fiscal incentives, an unreliable information base, a low level of motivation, expertise, and insufficient capacity in...

This knowledge note provides new evidence on property ownership and taxation patterns across genders in São Paulo (Brazil), the largest city in the Americas, with 12 million inhabitants. We exploit microdata on all commercial and residential properties to document the share of total property...

The main message of this report is that Pakistan can take measures to increase the tax to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio by around 3.5 percentage points over the next five years. In order to ensure a healthy long-run economic development, Pakistan needs to embrace substantial changes in tax...

"The Government of China has placed strong emphasis on addressing problems related to agriculture, farmers, and rural society, with the development of a "new socialist countryside" designated as a top priority for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006-2010). The financing of public services in rural...

"This paper presents a methodology to evaluate fiscal decentralization focusing on the potential mis-targeting of intergovernmental fiscal equalization transfers. The approach builds on an explicit comparison and the summary measurement of different (horizontal) allocation distributions across...

"Fiscal equalization programs are fairly common features of intergovernmental fiscal relations in industrial countries. Some developing countries have also recently introduced these programs and still others are contemplating such programs. Institutional arrangements for fiscal equalization vary...