This paper estimates the short run effect of the Car Allowance Rebate System (or “Cash for Clunkers†on light vehicle sales within the United States. Using a reduced form demand model of automobiles, I find that the program led to increased sales in July and August, 2009 of between...

If "tax progression is good for employment in popular models of trade union behaviour" (Koskela and Vilmunen, 1996), then a flat-rate premium, as proposed as a means of funding for public health care, is bad. This note shows that replacing existing (proportional) social security contributions by...

This paper investigates the causes of municipalities secession in Brazil. We develop a model where the median voter decides on the creation of new municipalities observing the trade-off between loss of scale on public production and increase in federal transfers to his/her municipality. Voters...

We show that the international distribution of ownership of the incumbent firms within a host region matters for the efficiency of the fiscal competition between the region's constituent countries for a new FDI project. If incumbent firms are owned entirely within the host region, then the new...

This paper investigates the presence of buoyancy effects in VAT revenue. The projected improvement in economic conditions from 2014 onwards could result in cumulative gains in VAT revenue up to 0.70% of GDP in the period from 2014 to 2016. There is evidence that the intensification of VAT...