A subset of the costs (and benefits) of sub-national fiscal autonomy in federations is examined, with the major focus being road check-posts. The examination is done with reference to Indian states and using elementary, partial equilibrium, diagrammatic analysis. Empirical analyses of the...

This paper develops a framework to assess the growth and distribution effects of fiscal resources. Resources are classified as debt, other capital receipts, foreign aid and other unilateral grants, non-tax revenue, including resource rents, seigniorage, and taxes. The framework is used to assess...

Bilateral Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with particular reference to India's network of DTAAs are analysed here to assess national benefits from DTAAs and make suggestions for future policy directions for India's DTAAs. Though DTAAs are a tool of tax coordination used by nations...

This paper evaluates effects on tax compliance of simple reforms in personnel policy in the Indian income tax administration. Taxpayers voluntarily disclosing higher incomes are currently assigned to special assessment units. To avoid this, high income taxpayers have an added incentive to...

We describe the simple analytics of the four main types of sales taxes under revenue neutrality: the retail sales tax, the value added tax, a cascading sales tax and a manufacturers' sales tax. The retail sales tax is shown to be equivalent to a value added tax. In order to produce equal...

This paper proposes a method for evaluating the impact of tax reform on tax revenues and the distribution of the tax burden. The technique consists of decomposing actual revenue relative to potential revenue into components attributable to (i) changes in the tax rate structure (ii) deductions...