Within an economy, tax compliance behavior falls along a continuum. At one extreme are households who fully report and pay their tax obligations despite any opportunities or incentives to cheat. At the other extreme are households who undertake considerable efforts to conceal their income and...

Micro data from audited tax returns are used to evaluate changes in the actual progressivity of U.S. federal income taxes in 1979 and 1988, which is distinct from apparent progressivity. Statistical inference methods are applied to global measures of both actual and apparent residual and...

This paper studies how income and bequest taxes affect income inequality. We firstly explore this relationship empirically using a panel of 20 OECD countries from 1980 to 2008. The data shows that an increase of income taxation tends to strengthen income inequality, while the inequality effect...

Micro data from audited tax returns are used to evaluatechanges in the actual progressitivity of U.S. federal incometaxes in 1979 and 1988, which is distinct from apparent progressivity.Statistical inference methods are applied to global measuresof both actual and apparent residual and liability...

We present models of asset management by the elderly. We focus on saving, spend-down of assets, and gift-giving, and the influence of health on these precesses. We also study the evolution of elderly health and the impact of economic variables on health outcomes. We present results from...

Written by a distinguished group of Asian social scientists, this study summarizes and synthesizes the economic impacts of the crisis on individual countries and their policy response since 2008, and in particular carefully scrutinizes the immediate and remote causes of the crisis. It not only...

This paper is about "ghosts" - individuals who fail to comply with their income tax filing requirements. As their name suggests, the identities and characteristics of these individuals are shrouded in mystery. In this paper we attempt to de-mystify the issues surrounding ghosts and examine their...