There has been surprisingly little empirical work explaining why countries choose different bundles of taxes. Early research by Musgrave and Hinrichs focused on the amorphous distinction between direct and indirect taxes. More recent research has examined the use of trade taxes and inflation,...

Governments use public education and public ownership of schools and the media to control the information that their citizens receive. More totalitarian governments as well as those with larger wealth transfers make greater investments in publicly controlled information. This finding is borne...

To the political economist, the variety of observed forms of taxation presents an interesting research challenge and raises a number of important questions. Can the seemingly confusing array of data be classified in a meaningful way? Is it possible to explain both differences and similarities in...