Tariff harmonization in the UEMOA (WAMU) at the beginning of 2000 will lead to an increase of tariffs in Benin. Based on a CGE model, this paper simulates the impact of this reform on Benin. We focus our model on the cross-border trade between Benin and Nigeria. We consider that cross-border...

This paper analyses whether it is worth taxing the black market. A theoretical optimal tax model provides a first analytical discussion. An empirical version allows us to estimate an optimal tax system for Madagascar. For reasonable inequality aversion parameters, the taxation’s rate of the...

This paper argues that random audit programs provide income taxpayers with information that alters their perceptions of, and hence their behavioral responses to, audits. Comparing samples of randomly selected audited and non-audited UK taxpayers, the evidence confirms predictions that audited...

In this paper we focus on the effects of investigations on tax compliance. Results from empirical studies suggest that the effects of audits are not only in terms of recovered unpaid tax (direct effects), but there are also indirect effects in terms of future better compliance in the rest of the...

Information risk – the uncertainty regarding the parameters of the distribution of firms’ future cash flows – generates valuation errors and is costly to investors who require a higher return to compensate for greater information risk. We argue that, on average, through their...

For well over a decade many observers had warned that the European Union was ill-prepared in case of a financial storm because its market integration far outpaced its policy integration. This situation was well known to policy-makers but it was hoped that financial crises would wait until policy...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the Bank of Japan's official interventions on the JPY/USD parity during the period 1992–2004. The novelty of our approach is to combine two recent advances of the empirical literature on foreign exchange interventions: (i) drawing on...

From January 1, 2005, the accounting standards applicable to publicly traded European banking institutions will be the standards issued by the IASB. The purpose of this paper is twofold. From a sample of nineteen European banking institutions, we first study the characteristics of this fair...

The European Union's decision of adopting the International Accounting Standards for the whole of its countries members was deeply contested by the European banks. In fact, the banking industry was completely opposed to IAS 39 which treats the financial instruments. In order to demonstrate the...