This paper examines the circumstances that led to the incorporation of the LIFO method of inventory valuation into the tax law in 1938 and 1939. An understanding of why the LIFO method was adopted after decades of initial opposition by revenue officials may lend perspective to the current policy...

The assignment of workers to tasks and teams is a key margin of firm productivity and a potential source of state effectiveness. This paper investigates whether a low-capacity state can increase its tax revenue by optimally assigning its tax collectors. We study the two-stage random assignment...

We use a unique data set for 115 countries, from 2000-18, and 5-year non-overlapping averages to explore the impact of technical assitance on revenue mobilization. To the authors' knowledge this is the first such effort to determine a direct relationship between technical assistance and the...

Do strong states affect the culture and actions of their citizens in a persistent way? And if so, can the capacity to tax, by itself, have a role in driving this effect? I study how the historical capacity of a state to collect taxes affects the decision of citizens to evade the mandatory...

The paper examines the division of tasks required between politicians and bureaucrats to run an effective rural employment guarantee scheme (EGS) in India, in the context of Indian history and habits. There are still weaknesses in the incentive structure of the new nationwide EGS. First, there...

This paper provides a within-country analysis of the impact of corruption on economic growth using a panel of Italian regions from 1968 to 2011 through a robust measure of corruption. This measure is averaged over 5-year periods to reduce short-run fluctuations and to reduce probable delayed...

Previous research shows that the effect of decentralization on damage caused by natural disasters will differ according a country’s level of economic development. To investigate this matter further, this paper uses cross-country data from 1990 to 2001 to examine how decentralization,...

This paper presents evidence for a causal effect of international migration on the functioning of democratic institutions in the sending country. It does so for the particular case of the Mexican democratization process, using data from municipal elections for the 2000–2002 electoral cycle....

This paper uses cross-country data from 1984 to 2008 to examine how institution influences the number of deaths caused by natural disasters. The major findings show that the number of deaths resulting from natural disasters is smaller in countries with less public sector corruption, and for OECD...

Hundreds of studies have failed to establish the effects of decentralisation on a number of important policy goals. This paper examines the cases of Bolivia and Colombia to explore decentralisation’s effects on government responsiveness and poverty-orientation. I first summarize economic data...