This paper reviews the literature on tax assignment in decentralized countries. Ideally, own-source revenues should be sufficient to enable at least the richest subnational governments to finance from their own resources all locally-provided services that primarily benefit local residents....

Excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco have long been a dependable and significant revenue source in many countries. More recently, considerable attention has been paid to the way in which such taxes may also be used to attain public health objectives by reducing the consumption of products with...

A sub-set of the costs and benefits of sub-national fiscal autonomy in federations is examined with the major focus being on road check-posts. The examination is done with reference to Indian states and using a partial equilibrium, diagrammatic analysis. Empirical analyses of the revenue impact...

This paper proposes a method for evaluating the impact of tax structure changes on tax revenue. The technique consists of decomposing the gap between actual revenue and potential revenue into components attributable to changes in (i) the tax rate structure (ii) deductions and (iii) tax evasion....

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Tables -- Preface -- One. Public Finance and Economic Development -- 1. Public Finance and Development in Colombia -- 2. The Developmental Task of Tax Policy -- Two. Tax Structure Reform -- 3. Growth, Equity, and the Income Tax -- 4. Taxation and the Allocation of...