The authors build on the work of Engelmann and Strobel and of Ackert, Martinez-Vazquez, and Rider to examine the potential role of social preferences in tax policy design. They randomly assign each participant in a session to a group with five members. The payoffs to participants are determined...

Since the seminal work of Ramsey (1927) and especially Diamond and Mirrlees (1971), a large body of literature has striven to identify rules characterizing optimal tax structures. The fundamental limitation of such an approach has been the lack of information necessary to implement the rules...

This study provides estimates of Pakistan’s tax gap by type of tax. We adopt a bottom-up approach that provides detailed estimates of the tax gap by type of tax of the sort that are useful for tax administration. For fiscal year 2004–05, we estimate Pakistan’s federal tax...

This article evaluates Jamaica’s corporate income tax and tax incentive schemes. There are considerable administrative burdens and economic distortions associated with Jamaica’s income tax regime that result from taxing capital income in a “small open economy.†These...

The method of elicitation has an important effect on valuations. We investigate the effect of perspective on decision makers' elicited values. We conduct experimental sessions in which participants act as sellers or buyers, and replicate the disparity between willingness to accept and...

This paper investigates the relationship between public sector employment and fiscal decentralization. We develop a theoretical framework modeling the interactions between the central and subnational executives regarding the level of public employment at the central and subnational government...

Taxpayers unlawfully trying to avoid income tax in most countries can mis-report a wide variety of line items, including income sources, exemptions, deductions, and credits. Such portfolio opportunities, or “modes,†for evasion raise important policy questions. For example, increasing...

There is a common belief that tax withholding systems have worked not only as Abstract efficient tax collection mechanisms but also as effective tax evasion controls. However, little is known about the role of withholding in tax compliance beyond the fact that withholding may reduce...