In Jamaica, as in most countries, consumption taxes in the form of a value-added tax called the General Consumption Tax (GCT) and several excise taxes collectively known as the Special Consumption Tax (SCT) are critically important revenue sources, accounting for 37.4 percent of total revenues...

Workers’ Compensation reforms have been on the table in virtually every state over the last several years, and many states have launched comprehensive reforms.  At least nine states undertook major reforms of their workers’ compensation systems in 2004 alone, and the reforms were driven...

This paper sets out to evaluate the role that entrepreneurs and small businesses play in economic development.  How important are entrepreneurs and small businesses in creating jobs, and are these the types of jobs that should be encouraged?  How important are entrepreneurs and small...

Current tax policies, while commonly thought to promote homeownership, have generally left low-income homeowners behind other homeowners. Using a number of simplifying assumptions, our estimates of lifetime homeowner tax subsidies suggest that the average homeowner in the lowest-income quintile...

We expand the traditional tax incentive redundancy argument by investigating the implications of targeting incentives primarily to firms that would have invested anyway. Incorporating government revenue constraints, pliable tax officials, endogenous tax liabilities, and firms with heterogeneous...

Expansion and improvement of public services is essential to improving quality of life and productivity in developing countries. Some African countries have been diligent in expanding the infrastructure necessary to provide public services, but unfortunately, most have not done a very good job...