It is hard to think of anyone who has contributed so much and so widely to research in international public finance in the last 40 years as has Richard Bird. This volume of essays emerged from a conference dedicated to him. It also expands on our understanding of international public finance.Richard Bird's academic and applied work has always benefited from a far-reaching involvement with, and knowledge of, relevant policy issues in many countries around the world. The range of public finance issues to which he has contributed over the years covers practically the whole gamut of the public finance discipline: tax policy, tax administration, the interdependency between the two, intergovernmental fiscal relations, public expenditure policy, and fiscal management processes. The topics covered in this book reflect the wide contributions of Richard Bird to the subject of international public finance, including original reviews of intergovernmental fiscal relations, fiscal policy, and tax evasion and tax administration, all with a special focus on transition and developing countries. These essays, by top scholars in their own right, will deepen our own understanding of relevant problems and issues in international public finance, much like Richard Bird has been doing for many years, and will be of interest to economists, policymakers and students.

The last several decades have seen major advances in the ways in which public economists investigate behavioural responses to taxation. Recent research has utilized new data sets and has applied new empirical methods, including laboratory experiments and natural and controlled field experiments. The application of behavioural economics has contributed insights from other disciplines, especially psychology. Here James Alm and Sebastian Leguizamon discuss the lessons from all this work. Covering such topics as labour supply, charitable giving, savings, capital gains realisations, mobility, bequests, family structure, reported income and tax evasion, they highlight the current state of knowledge in this area. They present new thinking about the relevant issues and an analysis of useful policy options.

This authoritative two-volume set brings together the most important classic and contemporary papers on taxation and tax policy, written by the world's leading scholars and practitioners of taxation. Volume I reviews the effects of taxation, optimal taxation and tax reform. Volume II presents the latest theoretical and empirical work on how taxes affect individual decisions across a range of areas, concluding with studies of the effects of taxes on firm investment and financial structure decisions. The volumes will interest those teaching upper-level and graduate level courses in taxation and tax policy, and individuals who want to be informed on the latest research in taxation.

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.

The central issue debated at each successive legislative session for over a decade, Louisiana's significant fiscal problems have remained unresolved despite efforts to mitigate the state's financial woes and avoid cutting key services or resorting to stop-gap solutions. Louisiana created its current tax structure in the 1970s, with some subsequent revisions in response to new economic realities. While many developments in Louisiana's fiscal picture lie outside the state's control, other changes including shifting tax rates, shrinking the tax base, and increasing the number of exemptions, deductions, and tax credits, resulted from decisions made by the legislative body. In Exploring Long-Term Solutions for Louisiana's Tax System, James A. Richardson, Steven M. Sheffrin, James Alm, and other contributors advocate for establishing financial reforms geared to long-term change and more stable fiscal prospects. With a focus on practicality and accessibility, the authors explore the complexities of Louisiana's economic reality and explain the state's current tax structure. In so doing, they suggest several reforms that challenge the state's use of sales tax, application of the individual income tax, approach to corporate taxation, and allocation of other taxes such as mineral revenues. Crucial for those who want to engage with their representatives, colleagues, and fellow voters on the topic of taxation, this book equips readers with timely information about policy and, more importantly, nonpartisan solutions that could secure a more prosperous future for Louisiana.

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.

Indonesia is currently facing some severe challenges, both in political affairs and in economic management. One of these challenges is the recently enacted decentralization program, now well underway, which promises to have some wide-ranging consequences. This edited volume presents original papers, written by a select group of widely recognized and distinguished scholars, that take a hard, objective look at the many effects of decentralization on economic and political issues in Indonesia. There are many questions about this program: how will it be implemented, is there capacity at the local level to implement its reforms, is there sufficient local political accountability to make it work, and how will the decentralization affect the broader program of economic growth and stabilization? Topics covered include: the historical and political dimensions of decentralization, its macroeconomic effects, its effects on poverty alleviation, the assignment of expenditure and revenue functions across levels of government, the design of transfers, the role of natural resource taxation and the effects of local government borrowing. An authoritative, comprehensive collection, Reforming Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations and the Rebuilding of Indonesia will be of interest to economists and policy makers as well as students of public finance, development, and Asian economics.

This book presents 15 original papers and commentaries by a distinguished group of tax policy and tax administration experts. Using international examples, they highlight the state of knowledge of tax reform, present new thinking about the issue, and analyze useful policy options. The book 's general goal is to examine the current and emerging challenges facing tax reformers and to assess possible directions future reforms are likely to take. More specific themes include distributional issues, how to tax capital income, how to design specific taxes (e.g., the income tax, the value-added tax, the property tax), how to consider the politics and administrative aspects of tax reform, and how to combine the separate insights into comprehensive tax reform.

This book presents 15 original papers and commentaries by a distinguished group of tax policy and tax administration experts. Using international examples, they highlight the state of knowledge of tax reform, present new thinking about the issue, and analyze useful policy options. The book 's general goal is to examine the current and emerging challenges facing tax reformers and to assess possible directions future reforms are likely to take. More specific themes include distributional issues, how to tax capital income, how to design specific taxes (e.g., the income tax, the value-added tax, the property tax), how to consider the politics and administrative aspects of tax reform, and how to combine the separate insights into comprehensive tax reform.

In recent decades countries around the world have seen a wide diversity of tax reforms, both in major systematic changes, and through more specific areas of tax, such as value-added and income tax. The results of these reforms, however, have been unequal, and many issues remain unresolved. With advances in globalization, technology and regional integration, the issue of adapting tax systems in developing countries to new economic environments is becoming ever more pressing. This research review surveys the best research from the past three decades on tax reform in developing countries to highlight the state of knowledge of tax reform, analyse useful policy options and present new and critical approaches to this critical issue.

Environmental Enforcement and Compliance: Lessons from Pollution, Safety, and Tax Settings reviews what economists do and do not know about the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of pollution monitoring and enforcement. The focus is mainly on lessons for and from the U.S. policy environment but discusses important research findings from international Settings as well. The authors draw most of their insights from a Subjective assessment of the existing theoretical, experimental, and empirical environmental economics literature but, where appropriate, lessons are drawn from criminal, tax compliance, and occupational health and safety Settings. The criminal literature is examined because the historical law and economic foundations of the environmental enforcement literature were developed in this context. The tax context is considered because the availability of data have generated an especially rich and diverse theoretical, empirical, and experimental literature, which has also been often applied to environmental compliance. The authors draw on the health and safety literature because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have similarly broad regulatory authority and often share institutional features. Environmental Enforcement and Compliance: Lessons from Pollution, Safety, and Tax Settings focuses is on five questions: (1) What do environmental monitoring and enforcement actions look like in the real world? (2) How do we assess environmental compliance and deterrence? (3) Do environmental monitoring and enforcement actions get results? (4) How, why, and when do inspections and sanctions achieve compliance and reduce pollution? And (5) what do the answers to the preceding questions tell us about designing and implementing more effective and more cost effective public policies for the environment? After an introduction, section 2 reviews key institutions. Section 3 discusses measuring environmental performance and compliance, paying particular attention to the perils and promise of assessing compliance in the presence of self-reported pollution. Section 4 summarizes how inspections and sanctions might influence compliance, and section 5 reviews the existing evidence on the deterrence effects of environmental monitoring and enforcement. Section 6 investigates lessons from occupational safety and tax compliance Settings. Section 7 explores mechanisms and motivations for compliance, focusing on both rational-actor models and more recent socio-behavioral models. Section 8 highlights key lessons for policy, and section 9 briefly concludes with directions for future research.