Uganda's commercial debt buy-back operation was financed by the International Development Association's Debt Reduction Facility (IDA Facility), with cofinancing from the governments of Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland and the European Union. Commercial debt service is a serious burden...

The author analyzes subsidies in Chile's public utilities. Over the last decade, especially, significant efforts have been made to extend public services to rural populations. An explicit consumption subsidy for potable water (targeted to the poorest twenty percent of the population) currently...

The author presents the view that informal economies arise when governments impose excessive taxes and regulations that they are unable to enforce. The author studies the determinants and effects of the informal sector using an endogenous growth model whose production technology depends...

Tax policy instruments are often used to stimulate private investment in developing countries. But researchers have not explored how well such policies have met stated policy objectives. To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of tax incentives for industrial and technological development, the...

This paper suggests a consumption-based direct tax, referred to here as a simplified alternative tax or SAT, as an alternative to the standard income tax for reforming socialist economies (RSEs). The paper consists of seven sections. Section I serves as an introduction. Section II outlines some...

The authors provide an empirical framework for assessing the effects of tax policy on an array of producer decisions about output supplies and input demands in Mexico, Pakistan, and Turkey. They specify and estimate a dynamic production structure model with imperfect competition for selected...

How have tax systems, whose primary role is to raise resources to finance public expenditures, evolved in the transition countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union? The authors find that: (1) the ratio of tax revenue-to-GDP decreased largely due to a fall in revenue from corporate...

The author reviews the debate on the causes of Argentina?s economic collapse in late 2001 and 2002 and examines the measures needed to help restore sustainable growth. Some analysts stress fiscal imbalances, others overvaluation of the peso under the convertibility plan, and others external...

Considerable interest has been expressed in recent years by tax theorists as well as practitioners, for the taxation of companies based on their cash flow. Unlike the equity-income tax base, which requires the deductibility of economic depreciation and debt financing costs, the cash-flow base...