This note discusses trade liberalization and trade taxes. The main issue should not be the reduction of trade taxes but of total tax revenue. By potentially changing the structure of the economy, trade liberalization will affect not just tax revenue but also the role of the state in the economy...

This book explains how economies, institutions, and politics interact to produce budget outcomes in Latin America, a region in which informality dominates public governance. It includes detailed country analyses which provide comparative knowledge about the workings of policymaking and budget...

This presentation was commissioned by the Trade and Integration Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue for the 5th Hemispheric Meeting celebrated on August 14th and 15th, 2003. This presentation discusses trade taxes as an important source of revenue in developing countries. The relationship...

This paper sketches the outline of "Theory of Fiscal Policy" in its most essential elements and outlines the assumptions implicit in it. It then argues that the reality can be far removed from this theory, at least in some countries.

In this project, the authors analyze the budgetary process to determine who decides on public expenditures in Brazil. The focus is not so much on the actual fiscal outcomes that emerge from the budgetary process, but rather on the policy making process that generates those outcomes. This...

According to an influential theoretical argument, presidential systems tend to present smaller governments because the separation between those who decide the size of the fiscal purse and those who allocate it creates incentives for lower public expenditures. In practice, forms of government...

This paper provides an estimation of the size of income and demand automatic stabilizers in a representative sample of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The authors find that when a negative unemployment shock hits the economy, the size of income and demand automatic stabilizers...

This paper explores the qualitative and quantitative implications of optimal taxation in a developing economy when economic growth is endogenously determined. We differentiate this class of economies from a developed economy in two aspects: informal sector is quantitatively significant and...

This paper analyses the dynamics of policy-making among the various political institutions in Brazil. The authors find that the driving force behind policies in Brazil is the strong set of powers given to the President, though several institutions constrain and check this power, in particular...

The recent financial crisis has initiated pressures for not only policy reform but also fundamental institutional fiscal reforms. This paper explores the connection between economic crises and fiscal institutional reforms in a region that has experienced plenty of both in recent years, namely...