High unemployment in many European OECD countries has been attributed to factors ranging from rigid wages and low job mobility to an interaction of high taxes and generous social benefits that may discourage labor force participation and encourage the growth of an underground economy. This...

This paper uses the method of measuring tax capacity and tax effort to analyze how well ECA countries are utilizing their tax capacities, relative to the average performance across countries. Among the variables that have been identified to be determinants of tax shares are: (i) tax evasion, and...