Bovenberg and de Mooij (1994) showed that, in the presence of preexisting distorting taxes, the optimal pollution tax typically lies below social marginal damages. The authors view this result as a refutation of the so-called "double dividend hypothesis," which suggests that a tax on pollution can both improve the environment and reduce distortions in the tax system. Their paper spawned a large...

JOHN CHRISTENSEN AND RICHARD MURPHY ABSTRACT Tax revenues are the lifeblood of democratic government and the social contract, but the majority of multinational businesses have been structured so as to enable tax avoidance in every jurisdiction in which they operate. John Christensen and Richard Murphy of the tax justice network argue that policy measures are required to redress the distortions ...

Why do so many African governments consistently impose high tax rates and make little investment in productive public goods when alternative policies could yield greater tax revenues and higher national income? We posit and test an intertemporal political economy model in which the government sets tax and R&D levels while investors respond with production. Equilibrium policy and growth rates de...

Background Tobacco taxation and smoke-free workplaces reduce smoking, tobacco-related premature deaths and associated out-of-pocket health care expenditures. We examine the distributional consequences of a price increase in tobacco products through an excise tax hike, and of an implementation of smoke-free workplaces, in China. Methods We use extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA) to eva...

We consider the impact of taxes on the quantity and quality produced of goods, such as wine, for which market value accrues with age. Any pair of taxes that includes a volumetric sales tax and any one of three other types of tax – an ad valorem sales tax, an ad valorem storage tax, or a volumetric storage tax – spans the quality/revenue space and can support an optimal tax system. Provided soci...

Reducing the amount of carbon dioxide Americans pump into the atmosphere will involve economic costs. These costs are larger than previously thought because emissions reduction policies are likely to aggravate economic distortions created by the tax system. But most of this added cost can be avoided if the policy chosen to reduce emissions raises revenues for the government and these revenues a...

Tax incentives for research and development represent an important tax relief within corporate income tax. B-index helps to detect differences in the influence of tax system on private sector to invest in research and development. The main objective of this paper is to present tax incentives for research and development, and calculation of B-index in Austria and Croatia. B-index results show be...

Taxing capital in open economies su¤ers from a rather wasteful tax competition. According to Konrad & Schjelderup (1999) harmonizing capital income taxes within a subgroup of countries is bene…cial to all countries. Although economists and politicians advocate a coordinated tax policy within a federation or a federal system like the EU they favor national tax sovereignty over a harmonization of...