The demonetisation exercise announced by the PM on November 8, 2016, aimed to tackle the problems of black money, fake currency, corruption, and terror funding. With time, more targets were added such as the creation of a cashless economy, curbing real estate prices, and broadening the taxpayer...

This paper considers the costs of reducing consumption of goods by making their production illegal and punishing illegal producers. We use illegal drugs as a prominent example. We show that the more inelastic either demand for or supply of goods is, the greater the increase in social cost from...

This paper studies the impact of replacing sales tax by value-added tax (VAT) on production efficiency and informality among Indian states. We disentangle the production efficiency gains caused by removing the distortions of sales tax from the increase in enforcement caused by VAT's input refund...

The paper highlights the interaction between the underground economy and corruption, focusing on the regional dimensions of the problem in south-eastern Europe. It discusses the theoretical approach to underground economic activities and focuses on the determinants of the Greek economy, the tax...

How does economic activity outside of government control-informality-affect the conduct of fiscal and monetary policy? I study this question in a New Keynesian, small open economy model. The model is assumed to feature informality in both goods and labor markets. A non-traded sector produces a...

The demonetisation exercise announced by the PM on November 8, 2016, aimed to tackle the problems of black money, fake currency, corruption, and terror funding. With time, more targets were added such as the creation of a cashless economy, curbing real estate prices, and broadening the taxpayer...

Innovations in finance and information technology have radically reduced transaction costs, thereby stimulating the globalization of goods, services and capital. Capital mobility, the growth of multinational corporations, high frequency trading, complex financial instruments, and global equity...

Can taxes on consumption redistribute in developing countries? Contrary to consensus, we show that taxing consumption is progressive once we account for informal consumption. Using household expenditure surveys in 32 countries we proxy for informal consumption using the type of store where...

This paper proposes a 21st century global fiscal architecture to replace the present system of personal and corporate income, sales, excise, capital gains, import and export duties, gift and estate taxes with a single comprehensive revenue neutral Automated Payment Transaction (APT) tax. In its...

This paper studies the optimal rate of seigniorage in an economy characterized by decentralized trade and a tax-evading underground sector. The economy has buyers, some of whom visit the formal market, while others visit the underground market. I find that the optimal rate of inflation depends...