The use of traceable payment methods presents an additional reform option for improving tax compliance. As regards consumption, card payments are the main alternative to cash in the euro area. Although the use of micro-data has provided clear evidence in favour of increasing information trails,...

Debt Overhang is a controversial issue in the eurozone countries and is considered as one of the factors which created the current economic crisis. How to deal with sovereign debt has been debated both at the theoretical and policy making level. This paper looks at the Greek debt and four...

This paper reviews developments in Europe from the eve of the introduction of the euro through the euro crisis. The paper begins with a discussion of the tax reform agenda. Although there are differences in the literature on specific taxes, and while European countries vary in their preferred...

In the late 1990s, after a phase of fiscal consolidation, several European countries introduced tax cuts with a view to reducing distortions and supporting growth. The reforms were prompted by concern about the effects of high tax levels on competitiveness and employment. The paper explores the...

This paper reviews the key economic issues concerning the welfare costs of inflation and deflation, with a view to shedding light on the desirable properties of the inflation process. Our review of the evidence on the overall costs of inflation and deflation indicates that such costs could be...

The tax competition for mobile capital, in particular the reluctance of small countries to agree on measures of tax coordination, has ongoing political and economic fallouts within Europe. We analyse the effects of introducing a two tier structure of capital taxation, where the asymmetric member...

The tax competition for mobile capital, in particular the reluctance of small countries to agree on measures of tax coordination, has ongoing political and economic fallouts within Europe. We analyse the effects of introducing a two tier structure of capital taxation, where the asymmetric member...

We analyze the effects of introducing a two tier structure of capital taxation, where the asymmetric member states of a union choose a common, central tax rate in the first stage, and then non-cooperatively set local tax rates in the second stage. We show that this mechanism effectively reduces...

The tax competition for mobile capital, in particular the reluctance of small countries to agree on measures of tax coordination, has ongoing political and economic fallouts within Europe. We analyse the effects of introducing a two tier structure of capital taxation, where the asymmetric member...

Due to input-output linkages, an industry level shock can widely transmit to the rest of the economy. We identify government policies on the automobile industry, which change final prices and estimate their effect on sales and production. An example could be the scrappage schemes that many...