This paper addresses two fundamental issues in indirect tax design. It first revisits the case for reduced rates on items especially important to the poor, establishing conditions under which even very crudely targeted spending measures better serve their interests. It then explores the welfare...

This paper shows that under imperfect competition the welfare effects of indirect tax harmonization may depend crucially on whether taxws are levied by the destination or the origin principle. In a standard model of imperfect competition, while harmonization always makes at least one country...