We use a model of intertemporal tax smoothing to examine long run data on fiscal policy in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. We find that the intertemporal model provides a good description of tax policy for the United States but is rejected for Australia and for the UK.

1. Introduction 2. Labour Supply 3. The Slutsky Condition 4. Welfare Changes 4.1 The Expenditure Function 4.2 Compensating and Equivalent Variations 5. Numerical Examples 5.1 The Tax System 5.2 Utility and Labour Supply 6. Conclusions

This paper examines methods used to evaluate welfare effects of tax changes, with emphasis on the measurement problems involved. Welfare changes and excess burdens are defined, along with approximations. Aggregate measures, using a social welfare function, are examined. A special case of income...

Tax compliance is modelled as a Bayesian Nash equilibrium in a costly state verification game with imperfect auditing. Neither the tax payer nor the auditor can measure the tax payer's true liability precisely: they observe independent noisy signals.

This paper examines the question of whether indirect tax rates should be uniform using four different modelling strategies. First, marginal tax reform is examined. Second, the welfare effects of a partial shift from the current indirect tax system in Australia towards a goods and services tax...

This paper examines the question of the extent to which redistribution can be achieved using a structure of consumption taxes differential rates and exemptions. A local measure of progression, that of liability progression (equivalent to the revenue elasticity) is examined. Results are obtained...

The paper formalizes a conflict in the use of credit. As compared to using costless fiat, the consumer's use of credit wastes resources by avoiding the inflation tax through a costly means of exchange. This inefficiency gives lattitude for a planner to increase welfare by restricting exchange...

India has a long history of running fiscal deficits. Two broad considerations motivate a government to run a deficit: tax smoothing and tax tilting. This paper tests a version of Barro's tax smoothing model, using Indian data for the period 1951-52 to 1966-97. The empirical results indicate that...

Wage functions provide much useful descriptive information about those characteristics of individuals which are associated with relatively high or low wage rates. In any cross-sectional survey there are many individuals who are not working at the time the survey is carried out. Such people may...