This paper explores aspects of the optimal design of tax/transfer schemes that involve elements of both 'tagging' (the use of categorical benefits) and 'means-testing' (income-relation of benefits). Simulations suggest a striking qualitative dissimilarity between the group-specific schedules...

This paper explores the implications of a distinctive feature of the value added tax (VAT) that is stressed by practitioners but essentially ignored by theorists: that it functions, in part, as a tax on the purchases of informal operators from formal sector businesses and, not least, on their...