This paper analyzes whether fiscal policy in South Asia amplifies or smooths business cycle fluctuations. The paper estimates several econometric models to explore the cyclicality of government spending and tax buoyancy. The findings show that fiscal policy is procyclical in most countries. In...

This study assesses the redistributive effects of fiscal policy in Mali and Niger. Fiscal policy is poverty increasing in Mali (by 2.4 percentage points) and Niger (2.5 percentage points). This is a result of primarily two factors: indirect taxes (value-added taxes and import duties) and direct...

Modern governments with a floating currency face no inherent financial constraints. Unfortunately, most modern macro-theorists continue to write as if these nations were financially constrained by (1) the magnitude of current tax "revenue" and (2) the private sector's willingness to "finance"...

Fiscal decentralisation - the devolution of taxing and spending powers to lowe levels of government - has become an important theme of governance in many developing countries in recent years. Accordingly, restructuring of governmental functions and finances between the national and lower levels...

This paper studies the incidence of tax-transfer policy in a growth model wherein individuals differ according to their level of intergenerational altruism and have an endogenous labor supply. The main results is that public debt is neutral at the macro level but redistributes resources from...

This study analyses fiscal federalism in Nigeria. Specifically, the report presents an historical account of fiscal federalism in the economy, highlighting significant episodes as well as drawing out implications for overall fiscal performance. Furthermore, it attemps to highlight some issues of...

Models of tax competition usually assume a single period framework. This paper sets up a repeated interactions model of tax competition, and establishes conditions under which fiscal policy harmonization can result from repeated interaction between governments. It is shown that fiscal policy...

This paper explores the fiscal implications to the US, and argues that immigration policy should be viewed as a vital part of fiscal policy. In particular, a case is made that skills and age at time of arrival are of great importance for the cost-benefit calculation of new immigrants.

This paper proposes a signaling model of fiscal stabilizations that offers a new perspective on why governments deviate from optimal tax smoothing. In our model, dependable -but not fully credible- governments have an incentive to tighten the fiscal regime when the signaling effect on credit...