The paper analyzes a political accountability game with an electorate of 'partisan' and 'independent' voters. It is shown that politicians have a strategic incentive to engage in 'divisive politics', that is, to force some independent voters to take sides, even if the direct electoral benefits...

An agreement about a lower bound for admissible tax rates can reduce the equilibrium tax rate (and thus welfare) in tax competition among fully symmetric countries. This is shown in an infinitely repeated game where the stage game describes the standard tax competition model with source-based...

This paper reviews recent developments in the theory of optimal income taxation and draws two broad conclusions with respect to the Hungarian personal income tax system. The first conclusion is that the optimal top marginal tax rate is likely to be higher, perhaps substantially, than the actual...