A recent empirical literature has arisen documenting the response of one nation’s policy choices, including tax, environmental, and labour policies, to those of others. This has been largely interpreted as evidence of competition, be it for mobile resources (like FDI, taxable book income, etc.) or yardstick. We present a third explanation based on learning. When countries’ tax choices reflect p...

We study a system of replicable (identical) cities with un-priced traffic congestion where each city requires a minimum investment in infrastructure setup costs. We consider alternative planning regimes (or, equivalently, market with profit-maximizing developers), differing from each other according to the public policy for financing the infrastructure. These policies play two roles: 1) providi...

Do carbon taxes kill jobs? With pricing at $30/tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, the BC policy is currently the most aggressive revenue-neutral carbon tax and serves as a role model for many jurisdictions world-wide. There are concerns, however, that this policy negatively impacts employment. This study uses firm-level synthetic control methods (SCM) to estimate employment effects o...

This report summarizes the results of work conducted as a short-term pension tax policy advisor to the Philippine government. This technical assistance is being provided through the USAID-funded AGILE project. The report contains general comments on the pension reform agenda described in a draft white paper and preliminary quantitative results on the individual income tax revenue effects of the...

Do preferences toward globalization strategies vary across publicfinance regimes? In this paper, we use data on individual preferences toward immigration and trade policy to examine how pre-tax and posttax cleavages differ across globalization strategies and state fiscal jurisdictions. High exposure to immigrant fiscal pressures reduces support for freer immigration among U.S. natives, especial...

An induced innovations framework was used to develop and test a model of factors affecting county government's decisions to adopt alternative service delivery methods. Size measures of population and tax base, fiscal measures of tax revenues, the share of tax base in •agriculture and access to human capital were significantly related to county use of innovations. Disciplines Economic Policy | E...

The paper analyzes the effects of a source-based capital income tax on production and market structures, trade and capital flows as well as national and global welfare. The analysis is carried by means of a general equilibrium model of trade which incorporates international capital flows as well as the existence of multinational enterprises. The focus of the paper is on identifying the influenc...

BACKGROUND Tobacco taxes are one of the most effective ways to reduce tobacco use. Transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) claim they wish to develop and secure excise systems that benefit both governments and the profitability of the companies themselves. The objective of the paper is to use the case of Ukraine, with its inconsistent history of excise tax changes in 1992-2008, to explore tobacc...