This paper re-examines the issues involved in the design of a direct tax on consumption, an idea that has received a fair degree of acceptance in the transition countries over the past decade (e.g., tax reforms in Croatia and Moldova). First we argue that on the subject of equivalence among a...

Public investment in infrastructure and the like do not usually yield direct pecuniary returns to the public exchequer. Instead public capital leads to increases in factor productivity in the private economy. This paper argues that government typically shares in the latter gains via the...

The importance of capital loss offset provisions in a world of risk is well documented in the tax literature. However, the potential deadweight losses (DWLs) owing to imperfect offset has not been fully explored. This paper develops a framework whereby that investigation can be carried out, and...