We show that delegating tax collection to large firms can help build tax capacity in weak-enforcement settings. We exploit two reforms in Argentina that dramatically expanded and subsequently reduced turnover tax withholding by firms. Combining firm-to-firm data with regression discontinuity and...

This paper examines why fiscal policy is procyclical in developing as well as developed countries. We introduce the concept of fiscal transparency into a model of retrospective voting, in which a political agency problem between voters and politicians generates a procyclical bias in government...

This paper presents an applied general equilibrium model for Germany. The model integrates specific labour market institutions in an otherwise standard general equilibrium framework. There are sectoral wage negotiations for two skill types of workers between firms and trade unions. The...

When we analyse the labour market consequences of labour tax reforms in a model of firm-union wage bargaining, minor changes in the formulation of the union`s fallback option can have drastic effects. This paper compares two variants of the model in which either workers have no reemployment...

This paper presents a survey of the so-called 'New Economic Geography' (NEG) approach to International Trade, giving particular emphasis to the impact of labour mobility on the spatial distribution of economic activities across integrated countries. The liberalisation of international trade...

In this study a two sector general equilibrium model with fully integrated labour and goods markets is presented. The two labour markets are segmented and represent two different "labour market regimes". The primary sector is an unionized high wage sector with "good" and rationed jobs, in the...

The paper analyzes the relation between institutional quality, such as corruption, in a country and its monetary regime. It is shown that a credibly fixed exchange rate to a low inflation country, like a currency board, can reduce corruption and improve the fiscal system. A monetary union,...

For many low-income countries, there has been an extended period in which fiscal policy was not a choice, or was a choice made by authorities external to the country. For a number of them, this situation is now changing. Their own success in stabilising the economy, coupled with a shift in the...

The study is an empirical test of the effects of different categories of government expenditure, revenue and deficits on economic growth in developing countries. It is based on panel data of annual series over the last three decades for 103 countries, which are further classified into...