The goal of this paper is to revisit the issue of the appropriate assignment of the property tax within the context of a fiscally decentralized system. We examine whether the conventional wisdom of assigning property taxes to local governments is the right one. Particularly in light of the...

The property tax is almost everyone’s choice for the principal local government tax revenue source in developing countries. The focus of public policy on this tax, and the interest it has drawn from public finance scholars and practitioners are evidence of its importance. Moreover, both...

“Will underdeveloped countries learn to tax?” asked Nicholas Kaldor (1963), forty years ago. Underlying this question is the assumption that if a country wishes to become ‘developed’ it needs to collect in taxes an amount greater than the 10-15 percent found in many developing countries....