The impact of fiscal activity on human capital formation has often been analyzed with regard to the expenditure side of the budget, i.e. the subsidization of (higher) education. Recent contributions have increasingly focused on the effect of taxation on human capital accumulation. Less attention is given to the simultaneous effect of both subsidization and taxation on human capital accumulation...

BACKGROUND The distribution of cigarette prices has rarely been studied and compared under different tax structures. Descriptive evidence on price distributions by countries can shed light on opportunities for tax avoidance and brand switching under different tobacco tax structures, which could impact the effectiveness of increased taxation in reducing smoking. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to de...

1 This chapter was prepared as part of the Mirrlees Review: Tax Reform for the 21 century. We wish to thank Henry Aaron, Tony Atkinson, Alan Auerbach, Richard Blundell, Malcolm Gammie, Mike Golosov, Jon Gruber, Bob Hall, Dan Halperin, Ken Judd, Louis Kaplow, Gareth Myles, Jim Poterba, Dick Tresch, Aleh Tsyvinski, Iván Werning and Eric Zolt for helpful comments, Ben Etheridge, Catarina Reis, Joh...

BACKGROUND In Bangladesh, the average excise tax on cigarettes accounted for just 38% of the average retail price of cigarettes in 2009, and 45% in 2010. Both these rates are well below the WHO recommended share of 70% of the retail price at a minimum. There is thus ample room for raising taxes on cigarettes in Bangladesh. The objective of the present work was therefore to estimate the price el...