This paper analyses some fiscal aspects of mortgage debt in the EU. It first describes the main fiscal instruments that governments use to affect mortgage-financed home-ownership. In the empirical part, real mortgage debt growth is analysed for 15 EU countries using pooled regressions. Fiscal...

This paper presents new evidence on the impact of the preferential treatment of owner-occupied housing in Europe. We find that tax benefits to homeowners reduce the user cost of housing capital by almost 40 percent compared to the efficient level under neutral taxation. On average, the tax...

This paper examines the current tax policy on venture capital (VC) in Italy, and compares it with the tax incentives adopted by France, Germany, Spain and the UK. The authors analyze ongoing European initiatives to remove tax obstacles to VC in Europe. Focusing on the taxation of VC funds, they...