The main purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of fiscal cooperation on local taxation in a decentralized country, using the French experience in urban municipalities. We estimate a model of tax setting for local business tax using spatial and dynamic econometric techniques, for the...

This paper develops a model of local income tax competition with a progressive tax scheme and a built-in fiscal equalization scheme. Both aspects are central to policy makers: The progressivity for equity reasons, and the fiscal equalization to prevent a race to the bottom and to limit the...

Income and property taxation are among the most prevalent policy instruments to finance local expenditure in countries with a high degree of decentralization. However, little is known about their relative efficiency and redistributive properties. This paper compares both tax instruments within...

This paper examines the tax competition literature and attempts to draw out its implications for the debate on corporate tax coordination within the EU. Although corporate tax coordination, including tax rate harmonization, has been the subject of intense discussion in the European Union (EU)...

Interjurisdictional competition over mobile tax bases is an easily understood mechanism, but actual tax-base elasticities are difficult to estimate. Political pressure for reducing tax rates could therefore be based on erroneous estimates of the mobility of tax bases. We show that tax...

Interjurisdictional competition over mobile tax bases is an easily understood mechanism, but actual tax-base elasticities are difficult to estimate. Political pressure for reducing tax rates could therefore be based on erroneous estimates of the mobility of tax bases. We show that tax...

It is difficult to justify tax incentives within the existing economics literature on tax competition. We develop a model in which communities are interested in attracting firms not only for their own capital but also for the “concentration externalities,” a form of agglomeration economies,...

This paper describes the institutional changes that have induced a decline in the vertical fiscal imbalance (VFI) - defined as the share of sub-national own spending not financed through own revenues - in four European countries: Belgium, Italy, Norway, and Spain. The decline in VFI was achieved...

This paper assesses the effects of India's tax system on growth, through the level and productivity of private investment. Comparison of India's indicators of effective tax rates and tax revenue productivity with other countries shows that the Indian tax system is characterized by: (1) a high...

This paper provides a largely nontechnical survey of concepts and issues related to the reform of the personal income tax, covering both base and rate aspects of the tax, as well as fundamental reform options. It also covers recent developments in selected OECD countries.