International taxation is a major research topic, and for a field of research at the intersection of so many disciplines there has been surprisingly little done across disciplinary boundaries. This book fills the gap by combining teams from business, economics, information science, law and political science to offer a unique and innovative approach to the issue of international tax coordination. All the chapters are written in collaboration between at least two authors from two different disciplines. This approach offers a rich and nuanced understanding of the many issues of international tax coordination. The book collects seven papers, each one a valuable contribution in itself, beginning with current problems of international taxation and finishing with potential solutions. The essays explore current EU legislation, tax avoidance and tax fraud, as well as double tax agreements, dividend repatriation and hybrid finance and tax planning. Providing methodological answers to the question of how to conduct interdisciplinary research, the book also gives an accessible introduction into research questions and answers that are important in related disciplines for scholars in various areas. This book will be of interest to postgraduates and researchers in the fields of economics, business, informational science, law and political science, as well as to professional accountants and tax lawyers.

This book addresses sixteen different reform proposals that are urgently needed to correct the fault lines in the international tax system as it exists today, and which deprive both developing and developed countries of critical tax resources. It offers clear and concrete ideas on how the reforms can be achieved and why they are important for a more just and equitable global system to prevail. The key to reducing the tax gap and consequent human rights deficit in poor countries is global financial transparency. Such transparency is essential to curbing illicit financial flows that drain less developed countries of capital and tax revenues, and are an impediment to sustainable development. A major break-through for financial transparency is now within reach. The policy reforms outlined in this book not only advance tax justice but also protect human rights by curtailing illegal activity and making available more resources for development. While the reforms are realistic they require both political and an informed and engaged civil society that can put pressure on governments and policy makers to act.

This book presents state-of-the-art research in political economy dealing with the decision making process under different political institutions. It focuses on the role that states and governments have on political outcomes and on the well-being of individuals, taking into account the differences that arise across autocracies and democracies and within political regimes. The research in this book is embedded with the political economy and social choice traditions and uses the rigorous frameworks of economics, political science and social choice theory to show how institutional settings shape social choices of a group of individuals or a nation. The contributions in this volume use a variety of cutting-edge game theory and mathematical tools as well as data and simulations that coupled with statistical techniques help us gain greater insights into these issues.

Over the last several decades, there has been a growing interest in theoretical, empirical, and experimental work on all aspects of tax compliance and tax evasion. The essays in this volume summarize the existing state of knowledge of tax compliance and tax evasion, present new thinking about this issue, and analyze the empirical relevance of these new perspectives. The original essays in this volume represent an attempt to provide a framework on compliance that moves beyond the economics-of-crime perspective, one that provides a more complete understanding of individual (and group) decisions, and one that is more consistent with empirical evidence.

It is the insights of behavioural economics that provide much of the bases for these essays and the main theme running through this book is that the basic model of individual choice must be expanded, by introducing some aspects of behaviour or motivation considered explicitly by other social sciences.

This book explores the wave of liberalization reforms experienced by OECD network industries. Focusing on the telecommunications sector, the authors analyze the latest data available on liberalization and privatization, and following a political economics approach, they integrate standard economic analysis with the most recent studies of the political determinants of market-oriented policies. The book presents new econometric evidence on several policy issues, including institutional complementarities dynamics, the problem of policy sequencing and the role of government political ideology. The detailed and comprehensive discussion offers insights into how so many countries adopting similar reforms actually differ in their policy "bundling", intensity and implementation of liberalization and privatization.

In recent times not only have traditional areas of public economics such as taxation, public expenditure, public sector pricing, benefit cost analysis, and fiscal federalism thrown up new challenges but entirely new areas of research and inquiry have emerged. This second edition builds upon the strengths of the previous edition and incorporates results of research on new areas such as global public goods, environmental taxation and carbon permits trading and the complexities of corporate taxation in a rapidly globalizing world.

The book is a modern and comprehensive exposition of public economics. It includes extended discussions on topics of particular interest to developing countries and covers subjects such as:

• taxation in an economy with a large informal sector
• the challenges of using VAT
• the use of randomized evaluation
• theory of public expenditure and public goods including global public goods
• incentive effects of taxation and tax incidence

This book discusses the major traditional areas of taxation and public expenditure as well as emerging issues relating to public economics in the globalized world economy. It will be useful as a reference and update on the modern literature on public economics for professional economists and policymakers, as well as providing invaluable information as a basic text for undergraduate and graduate students in public economics.

This groundbreaking book analyzes how the ecology of taxation is fundamental for the success or failure of tax systems. It specifically focuses on the role of the ecological environment on taxation; the factors that determine the ecology of taxation; and how the ecology of taxation has changed and may continue to evolve. Income taxes operate well in highly industrialized countries, characterized by large enterprises, modern accounting, thousands of workers and tangible products. There are great difficulties, however, when they operate in countries with higher levels of informality. Vito Tanzi addresses this effect and the influence of economic structure; the income distribution; globalization; technology; and various other main elements that determine the ecology of taxation. The implicit, important conclusion is that there are no permanent or universal optimal tax theories: all theories are related to this ecology. Students of taxation from various fields and economists interested in taxation and public finance will appreciate this book's new perspective on success and failure of taxes and tax systems. It will also serve as a useful resource for tax historians, policy experts, teachers, and tax theorists.

What constitutes a good life? For most people, well-being involves more than a high income or material prosperity alone. Many non-material aspects, such as health, family life, living environment, job quality and the meaningful use of time are at least as important. Together, these factors also influence the degree to which people are satisfied with their lives, and help to determine how happy they feel. This book argues that happiness and life satisfaction do not form a good basis for measuring well-being, and proposes an alternative method that not only considers the various aspects of well-being, but also the fact that people have their own views on what is important in life. Not limited just to theory, the book also presents a large-scale, representative survey involving more than 3000 adults from over 2000 Belgian families, which charted the various aspects of the individual well-being of Belgians. Focusing on the unequal distribution of these various aspects of well-being within families, the survey showed that some Belgians are more likely to suffer from cumulative deprivation in multiple dimensions. Based on this innovative study, the book describes which people in society are worst off - and these are not necessarily only people on low incomes or those who feel unhappy - and proposes that policymakers prioritise these individuals.

This volume contains a stimulating collection of analytical studies focusing on taxation in Mozambique. It tells a compelling story about tax systems in a low income economy increasingly integrated into the world trading system, but very much dependent on foreign trade taxes and international development assistance.

Key issues covered include:

• A better understanding of the historical background of tax reforms in a representative African economy (Mozambique) along with an assessment of taxation performance in a comparative perspective.
• Insights into the practice and implications of tax policy, both from the perspective of the consumer and the firm level.
• Discussion of the existing institutional set up in which tax policy and its enforcement operate and analyses of current tax practices.
• Taxation themes at the border and at domestic level, which are typical for low-income economies, characterized by a high degree of reliance on foreign trade taxes.

This volume is meant as a guide for developing country government officials and professional aid practitioners as well as academics, researchers and tax policy analysts working in the development field. It will also be of interest to students of development with a special interest in public finance issues in poor countries and how to improve policy-effectiveness, including tax policy, in a developing country setting.

Why, in the last decades of the twentieth century, did industralized nations witness recurring vast public deficits, even in times of peaceful international relations and economic growth? The essays in Politics, Institutions, and Fiscal Policy chart answers sought by economists, political scientists, and government officials. This groundbreaking book looks at states within five industrialized federations Canadian provinces, Swiss cantons, Belgian regions, German lander, and American states as case studies of variation in budget balances since 1980. The work s conclusion compares deficit levels between the federations studied. Politics, Institutions, and Fiscal Policy sheds new light on the role of such factors as spending and taxation levels and electoral and partisan cycles within the budget balancing process. Neatly written and theoretically grounded, this volume contributes greatly to our understanding of public finance and public administration."

Does the European Union need closer fiscal integration, and in particular a stronger fiscal centre, to become more resilient to economic shocks? This book looks at the experience of 13 federal states to help inform the heated debate on this issue. It analyses in detail their practices in devolving responsibilities from the subnational to the central level, compares them to those of the European Union, and draws lessons for a possible future fiscal union in Europe. More specifically, this book tries to answer three sets of questions: What is the role of centralized fiscal policies in federations, and hence the size, features and functions of the central budget? What institutional arrangements are used to coordinate fiscal policy between the federal and subnational levels? What are the links between federal and subnational debt, and how have subnational financing crises been handled, when they occurred? These policy questions are critical in many federations, and central to the current discussions about future paths for the European Union. This book brings to the table new, practical insights through a systematic and comprehensive comparison of the EU fiscal framework with that of federal states. It also departs from the decentralization perspective that has been prominent in the literature by focusing on the role of the centre (which responsibilities are centralized at the federal level and how they are handled, rather than which functions belong to the local level). Such an approach is particularly relevant for the European Union, where a fiscal union would imply granting new powers to the centre.

China's stunning record of economic development since the 1970s has been marred by an increasingly obvious gap between the country's 'haves' and its 'have-nots'. While people living in some parts of the country have enjoyed dramatically improved conditions of life, those in other districts and regions have slipped ever further behind in terms of access to health, wealth, education, security and opportunity. Paying for Progress in China is a collection of essays which trace the causes of this growing inequality, using new data including surveys, interviews, newly available official statistics and in-depth fieldwork. Their findings expose the malfunctioning of China's 'broken' intergovernmental fiscal system, which has exacerbated the disequalizing effects of emerging market forces. Whilst the government's deliberately 'pro-poor' development policies have in recent years sought to reduce the gap between rich and poor, both markets, and also state institutions and policies, are continuing to create perverse equity outcomes across the country, confounding hopes for better-balanced and more inclusive growth in China. The interdisciplinary approach of this collection, incorporating work by economists, sociologists and political scientists, makes it a valuable resource for students of contemporary Chinese political economy and social development.

'This is one of those rare technical books which has an importance outside its own field' The Daily Telegraph.
'One of the most stimulating post-war books on public finance' The Guardian.
Part 1 examines the issue of Expenditure Tax in principle and includes chapters on the following:
* Income, Expenditure and Taxable Capacity
* The Concept of Income in Economic Theory
* Taxation and Savings
* Taxation and risk-bearing
* Taxation and the Incentive to Work
* Company Taxation
* Taxation and Economic Progress
Part 2 examines the issue of Expenditure Tax in practice, asking whether personal expenditure tax is practicable and putting forward a proposal for Surtax Reform.

The subnational dimension of infrastructure has emerged as one of the greatest challenges in contemporary public finance policy and management. Ensuring the efficient provision of infrastructure represents a challenge for all countries irrespective of their level of centralization or decentralization. This book proposes an innovative approach for the strengthening of decentralized public investment and infrastructure management. Decentralization and Infrastructure in the Global Economy: From Gaps to Solutions covers the most important aspects of infrastructure investment in a decentralized setting. It discusses infrastructure gaps and the quality of subnational spending; how functional responsibilities, financing and equalization can be designed; sector-specific arrangements in high expenditure areas, such as health, education and roads; key steps of the public investment cycle and management; and analyses the political economy and corruption challenges that typically accompany decentralized infrastructure projects. This book challenges some of the well-accepted principles of intergovernmental fiscal relations and will be useful to researchers and practitioners of public finance policy and management.

This key volume explores how party and campaign finance in post-communist countries have influenced the development of the party system. Based on an analysis of nine case studies, the work examines how the implementation of public finance affects the pattern of party competition and the role of money in elections. One of the lessons from the post-communist experience is that, no matter how well-designed, public finance systems are subject to constant revision as parties, politicians and business elites exploit loopholes which can undermine the integrity of the entire system. Party and campaign finance systems must therefore be considered in a larger discussion involving party regulation and electoral rules.

This two volume set includes the most influential writings on international debt. In addition to essential early material, the editors have assembled the key contributions written during the unfolding of the modern international debt drama from the early 1970s. An introductory chapter by the editors explains the context and order in which the writings are presented. In particular, the individual contributions are grouped under sequential headings which are intended to draw out key themes and relationships between the concerns of the original authors. This collection reflects clearly the interaction between the evolution of the international policy debate and the development of major analytical insights on the debt problem and its resolution.

This book provides a theory capable of explaining the patterns of public expenditures and taxation that occur under representative government. Economists and political scientists have come to realize that issues of public policy and public finance cannot be solved on the naive assumption that these are problems tackled by a government that exists only to serve the public good. Instead, government must be understood as one of the major economic institutions of society, one that behaves like more familiar economic institutions--the household and the firm--though the market it confronts is a market for policies rather than for goods and services. Albert Breton's pathbreaking work remains important in taking us toward a theory of representative government that enables an understanding of the observed behavior of political institutions.

The author's analysis is cast in a relatively simple demand, supply and demand-supply-equilibrium framework, using the tools of marginal and stability analysis to explain the forces that influence and determine the flow of resources as they are allocated between competing ends in the public sector. The book presents a model of demand by citizens, who are assumed to be maximizing their desires for specific public policies and private goods, and a model of the supply of public policies by politicians and bureaucrats, who are assumed to be maximizing the probability of their re-election and the size of their budgets. Breton defines government policies and the institutional framework for collective choices in terms that render them amenable to further analysis.

The main accomplishment of Breton's theory is that it provides the ability to analyze the interaction of individuals and generates testable propositions about the behavior of these individuals as well as about the behavior of public expenditures and taxation in more aggregative terms. In this way the book will be useful to students of economics, economists, and those interested in economic theory.

"Albert Breton" is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Toronto. He was once director of research for The Social Research Group in Montreal. His articles have been widely published in major journals and some of his recent books include "Rational Foundations of Democratic Politics" and "Political Extremism and Rationality" (with Gianluigi Galeotti, Pierre Salmon, and Ronald Wintrobe) and "Bijuralism: An Economic Approach" (with Michael J. Trebilcock).

This insightful book focuses on the role of fiscal policy in common markets, especially in the context of the supranational constructs in the Gulf Cooperation Council, comprising Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. It draws on the experience of the EU and the importance of VAT, and reflects on the other main common market in Central America. Although oil windfalls have opened a window of opportunity for the Gulf States, at the same time they have created numerous problems. In particular, the uncertainty associated with periods of boom and bust in the oil market has made the formulation and implementation of sound fiscal policies a formidable task. In this study, the distinguished authors present the background to current fiscal reforms and address the critical challenges facing the Gulf States including the choice between consumption and saving (or current needs and future requirements); intra-generational equity issues; the pro-cyclicality of fiscal policy; fiscal sustainability and the prudent management of revenues from finite oil reserves. They examine the case for VAT to substantially replace customs duties, a significant source of non-oil revenue which would be lost as a result of free trade agreements between the GCC and key trading partners. They also demonstrate how an agreed design for VAT would assist in furthering economic integration, and enhance trade and exports. If properly sequenced, VAT would have a negligible impact on both inflation and the poor, and would be progressive in relation to the customs duties replaced. This highly topical book will be of great interest to academics specializing in public sector economics and public finance, and to national and international policymakers involved in fiscal reform.

The intergovernmental fiscal issue is highly relevant given the worldwide movement toward more decentralized governance in both industrial and developing countries. Over the course of five decades Japan has developed a robust system of decentralized governance. This book investigates fiscal decentralization and local finance in Japan with a view to understanding how the process of decentralization has unfolded there and what the rest of the world can learn. The author sheds light on the drives leading up to a need for decentralization reform over the last decade and evaluates so-called 'Trinity Reform' implemented by the Koizumi administration during 2004-2006. Finally, the book considers the decentralization process in Asian developing countries and discusses what lessons might be drawn from Japanese experiences. This excellent study of an important subject area will be particularly useful for all those studying intergovernmental fiscal relations, public finance and public sector economics. It will also be of interest to specialist international organizations and policy makers who are involved in intergovernmental issues.

Aaron Wildavsky was one of the most innovative and prolific scholars in the field of budgeting in our time. His work spanned a period of more than forty years, and its perspectives encompassed not only budgeting in the United States, but also its comparative and historical dimensions. As a leading political scientist, his research also ranged into American political institutions, public policy analysis, leadership, and biblical studies. This book pays tribute to Aaron Wildavsky by explicating his life and work, with emphasis on his contributions to the field of public budgeting and finance.Larry Jones and Jerry McCaffery place Wildavsky's work within the context of previous work on budgeting. They show how some of the highlights of his immense output responded to and shaped questions in the field. Naomi Caiden reviews the way in which Wildavsky used budgeting as a window into other areas of politics. Richard Rose discusses how an American scholar became an internationally known one. Joseph White goes back to the beginning of Aaron's career and shows that budgeting in agencies and in Congress is still incremental for very powerful reasons. Allen Schick reviews the history of the federal budget process, brilliantly summarizing how much has changed.The festschrift poignantly assesses the significance and influence of Aaron Wildavsky's work. It also includes some excerpts from Wildavsky's own writings in this area, and experiences of those who collaborated with him. In acknowledging Wildavsky's contributions to public budgeting and political science, this book also makes an original contribution to the field. It will be a necessary addition to the libraries of political scientists, economists, policymakers, not to mention all those who admired Aaron Wildavsky and his work.

Contains essays by historians of economic and financial history. It illuminates the relationships between government indebtedness and the development of financial markets in Europe from the late Middle Ages to the late twentieth century.

Revenue and expenditure forecasting plays an important role in public budgeting and financial management, particularly during times of financial constraint, when citizens impose greater accountability upon government to use taxpayer dollars more efficiently. Despite its significance, revenue and expenditure forecasting is often overlooked in the budget process, and there is an imbalance between practice and research in this area. Based on the collaboration of budget scholars and practitioners, Government Budget Forecasting fulfills two purposes- Enhances the understanding of revenue and expenditure estimation both theoretically and practically Stimulates dialogue and debate among practitioners and academicians to identify good forecast practices as well as areas for improvement

Divided into four parts, this comprehensive reference first examines forecast practices at the federal, state, and local levels, utilizing case studies that include California, Texas, and Louisiana. It then explores consensus systems and risk assessment, considering political factors and the costs of forecast errors. The text concludes with a call to transparency and guidance from a code of ethics, and a look at forecasting practices in emerging countries.

In all highly industrialized countries public expenditures are a substantial and growing share of total economic activity. The authors integrate normative and positive theory and empirical analysis of public expenditure, concentrating on the optimal provision of public goods and the estimation of their costs and effects. This volume emphasizes the techniques that are available for reaching collective decisions about the provision of public goods and stresses the importance of income distribution and intergovernmental fiscal relations. In a mixed economy, where the public sector is growing faster than the private sector, the nature of public expenditures must be closely evaluated and studied. This book is designed to focus on and delineate controversies about public expenditure--to define what it is, analyze its function, show how it operates, and finally to evaluate research on this important subject.

The book considers the theories of leading economists (Kenneth Arrow, Lionel Robbins, Carl Shoup, James Buchanan, Paul Samuelson, Richard Musgrave, and others) in arriving at a clear statement of theory in its application to operational problems. Appropriate attention is paid to current techniques such as program budgeting, cost-benefit analysis, and the analysis of the determinants of public expenditure. The book is unique in its emphasis on the integration and critique of contemporary theories of public expenditure, of distributional concerns, and of the political framework of public expenditure decisions. It provides a necessary resource for professional economists required to deal with public expenditure problems in research or practice.

Some of the best writings on public budgeting and finance can be found in the journals that ASPA publishes or sponsors. For this volume editor Irene Rubin has brought together the best of these articles - emerging classics that address the most important theoretical and practical problems underlying public budgeting.The anthology is organized topically rather than historically, with an effort to delineate the issues needed to understand some of the more recent controversies in the field. Rubin's introductory essay and section openers frame the key issues and provide historical context for each article. The collection begins with descriptions of what public budgeting is, where it comes from, and what it is for. It moves on to the relationship between budget processes and outcomes, constraints on budgeting, the legal context in which it operates, and adaptations to those constraints such as contracting out.The book concludes with a discussion of the ethics and norms that underlie budgeting in a democracy. Throughout the anthology, the emphasis is on areas of disagreement and debate, so students can get involved and explore different viewpoints.

This book elaborates on how Norway has managed to convert a large fraction of its endowment of hydrocarbons below the seabed of Norwegian waters into financial wealth, invested in the world's capital markets. Further, it explains how this wealth is managed. Under the current guidelines, only the assessed return on investment may be allotted to public budgets. This ensures that the wealth will benefit both current and future generations. The capital is gathered in the Sovereign Wealth Fund - or State Pension Fund Global (SPF-G) -, which is intended to maximize capital value without exceeding acceptable risks. The book offers new insights into the history and management of the fund, examines its successes,and discusses future challenges. Given its scope, it appeals to scholars of economics, finance and political science, and to anyone interested in the sustainable investment of natural resource-based revenues.