1. Distribution of fiscal responsibilities in federations / Julio Escolano. [et al.] -- 2. The role of fiscal transfers in smoothing regional shocks / Tigran Poghosyan, Abdelhak Senhadji, and Carlo Cottarelli -- 3. Constraints on subnational fiscal policy / Luc Eyraud and Raquel Gomez Sirera --...

This paper, based on the considerable practical experience of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, sets out a successful strategy for modernizing customs administration. The essence is to establish transparent and simple rules and procedures, and to foster voluntary compliance by building a...

Conventional wisdom has it that the value-added tax is not a suitable instrument for lower-level jurisdictions (‘provinces’) in a federal system. The problems that arise when it is so used have become a serious constraint on the development of the VAT—and closer economic integration—in...

This paper articulates and, using newly-assembled data, explores how international taxation affects aggregate tangible cross-border investment. Spillovers from statutory tax rates abroad seem: As sizable as effects from the host's rate; larger than previous consensus values (attributed to a...

The importance and complexity of petroleum and hard minerals operations is matched by the importance and complexity of finding effective ways to tax them. Many of these challenges arise in other activities too (exhaustibility of deposits being the main exception), but they take such extreme form...