A major change of the property tax system in 2011 generated significant variation in the amount of housing taxes paid by Italian households. Using new questions added to the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW), we exploit this variation to provide an unprecedented analysis of the...

During the Greek crisis the wealth tax on real estate (WTRE) was increased four-fold as a percentage of GDP in order to boost fiscal revenues. This increase contributed to an essentially complete freeze of the real estate market, a considerable drop in real estate prices, and a substantial...

Given that VAT/GST systems are primarily designed for the purchase of goods or services that yield immediate consumption, or consumption over a limited period of time, they do not cope well with goods that are consumed over a long, or indefinite, period. The classic example is a personal...

We quantify the housing-consumption channel in mortgage demand according to which households borrow more following house-price increases since housing and non-housing consumption are imperfect substitutes. To identify this channel, we take a structural approach to mortgage demand and supply,...

This paper attempts to analyze the role of taxes on property in containing asset bubbles and its consequent recessionary impact, by developing a framework, wherein the housing market is conceived as consisting of several sub-markets i.e. rental housing market, house resale market, new...

Vertical equity in property tax systems refers to the assessment of all properties in a taxing jurisdiction at the same proportion of their market values. This study considers alternative methods for measuring vertical inequity in multi-family property markets using sample data. The results...

We analyze the long-run optimal combination of wealth and labor tax rates in a model where wealth-to-income ratios and wealth inequality are rising endogenously. We consider rich (lenders) and poor (borrowers) households, financial and housing wealth, and find that a ''realistic'' optimal steady...