"A gripping account of taxation told through lively, dramatic, and sometimes ludicrous stories drawn from around the world and across the ages Governments have always struggled to tax in ways that are effective and tolerably fair. Sometimes they fail grotesquely, as when, in 1898, the British...

This paper shows that under imperfect competition the welfare effects of indirect tax harmonization may depend crucially on whether taxws are levied by the destination or the origin principle. In a standard model of imperfect competition, while harmonization always makes at least one country...

Issues of taxation and development, which have long been a central concern of the IMF, have attracted wider and renewed interest in the last few years. This paper reflects on three broad lessons of experience: that developing countries differ vastly in tax matters, and in ways that are less than...