More effective taxation of agriculture is central to the development issue. An OLS cross-country regression across developing countries shows that every one percent increase in the share of agriculture in value addition lowers the tax/GDP ratio by a little over one-third of one percent, after...

Using various methods estimates about the size of the shadow economy in 110 developing, transition and OECD countries are presented. The average size of the shadow economy (in percent of official GDP) over 1999-2000 in developing countries is 41%, in transition countries 38% and in OECD...

This paper concerns the use of presumptive taxation methods in taxing the hard to tax, which is a subset of presumptive taxation more generally. Since other papers are concerned with the concept of the “hard to tax”, I will not dwell on it, beyond noting that it is rooted in the...

One of the oldest questions in the theory and practice of taxation is that of the appropriate mix of direct and indirect taxes. The choice between direct and indirect taxes has contributed to a long animated debate, in political and academic circles, regarding the virtues and defects of those...

In developed countries, the income tax, especially the personal income tax, has long been viewed as the primary instrument for redistributing income and wealth. This article examines whether it makes sense for developing countries to rely on the income tax for redistributive purposes. We put...