Tax reform debates in the United States have for some time been dominated by the question of whether the existing corporate and individual income tax system should be replaced with some form of a national consumption tax. This book contains essays by a group of internationally recognized tax experts who describe the current state of the art in economic thinking on the issue of whether fundamental tax reform is preferable to continued incremental reform of the existing income tax. The collection covers a wide range of tax policy issues related to consumption tax reforms, including their economic effects, distributional consequences, effects on administrative and compliance costs, transitional issues and the political aspects of fundamental tax reform, and international comparisons.

The 27 articles reprinted in this volume are among Peter Mieszkowski's most important contributions to public, urban and regional economics. Several of these pieces concern income distribution theory and policies for promoting equality in wages, housing and education.The first part of this book includes studies of labour markets, tax incidence and the distributive effects of trade unions and wage subsidies. Two important conclusions presented in these papers concern the local property tax: it is a tax on capital and it results in under-provision of local public goods. The second and third parts of the book address, respectively, the decentralization of cities and and tax reform. Issues discussed include: racial discrimination in housing markets, the design of land use regulation, the negative income tax, consumption taxes, and tax reform in transition countries, particularly Eastern European countries. These outstanding essays bring together, in an accessible form, the work of one of the most important scholars in the field of public finance and urban economics.

Tax reform debates in the United States have focused on the question of whether the existing corporate and individual income tax system should be replaced with some form of a national consumption tax. This book contains essays written by internationally recognized tax experts who describe the current state in economic thinking on the issue of whether fundamental tax reform is preferable to continued incremental reform of the existing income tax. The papers were originally commissioned by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, Houston. The collection covers a range of tax policy issues related to consumption tax reforms, including their economic effects, distributional consequences, effects on administrative and compliance costs, transitional issues and the political aspects of fundamental tax reform, and international comparisons. The book will serve as a comprehensive guide to the ongoing tax reform debate to tax policy makers and the general electorate.