We study the fiscal consequences of large military buildups. To do so, we assemble the Global Budget Database, a comprehensive dataset of disaggregated central government finances for 20 countries from 1870 to 2022. We identify 114 episodes of military spending booms, in peace and war, and...

This paper explores the economic consequences of (taxing) power fragmentation using both theory and data. We first formalize tax policy as the result of interministerial competition where the Minister of Finance ('Guardian') and the Minister of Mines ('Spender') have distinct objective...

Global tax governance has long struggled with ineffectiveness, as reflected in rising corporate tax avoidance that costs governments hundreds of billions of dollars annually. In response, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/G20 advanced the most ambitious initiative...

This paper explores the forms of taxation practised by Al Qaeda and the Islamic State branches operating in Mali and Niger. It builds on insights from the rebel governance literature and an original conceptualisation of jihadist taxation and its effects. Unlike classic perspectives in the rebel...

The taxing authority of subnational governments is limited by the geographic location of individuals and economic activity. The rise of telework decouples a worker's residence from the employer's location, creating challenges for personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, and unemployment...

This paper critically reviews the empirical and structural literature on the effects of income taxation on informal economic activity. Although labor taxation has been widely studied in relation to labor market outcomes, evidence linking income taxes to informality remains fragmented and uneven...

An influential literature suggests that the rise of taxation should come with a 'governance dividend': the quality of government should improve, because the taxpaying citizenry will subject the ruler to increased scrutiny. While this fits the history of nowadays advanced economies, it is less...

This paper explores the role of informal taxation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and aims to shed light on informal fiscal realities and the implications of informal tax institutions for governance and state legitimacy. Relying on mixed-methods data from household surveys, interviews, and...

We find that patents registered by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in tax havens help avoid taxes in the EU but fail to increase the total factor productivity (TFP) of EU-located group members. We conclude that many of those patents' prime purpose is not to make technology available and then...

Market forces, and notably the role of trade openness, contribute to shaping inequality in South Africa and may limit the inclusiveness of its growth path. Recently, policy reforms may have helped to mitigate these effects. To better understand these developments, we analyse trends in post-tax...

The taxing authority of subnational governments is limited by the geographic location of individuals and economic activity. The rise of telework decouples a worker's residence from the employer's location, creating challenges for personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, and unemployment...

This paper assesses the fiscal and distributional effects of personal income tax expenditures in Portugal using EUROMOD and 2022 EU-SILC microdata. We compare the 2023 tax-benefit system with a counterfactual scenario in which tax expenditures are removed to estimate first-round impacts. We find...

Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis, this paper updates, for 123 countries, the estimates of tax capacity-defined as the maximum level of revenue a country can feasibly achieve - and tax effort - measured as the ratio of actual tax revenue to tax capacity. It also introduces two novel models that...

The Scottish Budget and Spending Review published on 13 January set detailed spending plans for 2026-27, alongside higher-level plans for the following two years for day-to-day (resource) spending and the following three years for investment (capital) spending. Understandably, the Scottish...

Since its inception, the Welsh Government has had powers over local taxation - determining the structure of council tax (with councils then setting the headline tax rate) and the structure and level of business rates. The late 2010s saw the Welsh Government gain powers over a number of other...

This paper analyses how UK tax-benefit policies shaped poverty, inequality, and living standards between 2019 and 2023, spanning the COVID-19 shock and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis. Using the UKMOD tax-benefit microsimulation model combined with imputed household consumption data, we...

Market forces, and notably the role of trade openness, contribute to shaping inequality in South Africa and may limit the inclusiveness of its growth path. Recently, policy reforms may have helped to mitigate these effects. To better understand these developments, we analyze trends in post-tax...

This paper argues that Colombia's taxation problems reflect a deeper political economy equilibrium shaped by extractive institutions, extreme inequality, and cultural norms that favor individual solutions over collective ones. Historical legacies produced a weak and often distrusted state, which...

Wir untersuchen anhand von qualitativen Experteninterviews die Relevanz der Gewerbesteuer im Verhältnis zu anderen Standortfaktoren am Beispiel von Düsseldorf, Oberhausen und Magdeburg. Besonders relevante Faktoren sind die Verkehrsinfrastruktur, die Verfügbarkeit von Flächen sowie von Fach-...

In der kommenden Legislaturperiode entsteht im Bundeshaushalt eine jährliche Finanzierungslücke von mindestens 120 Mrd. Euro, zumindest dann, wenn man die Bedarfe in Infrastruktur, Dekarbonisierung und Verteidigung ernst nimmt. Um Deutschland zu modernisieren, empfiehlt das Papier eine...

Der Kieler Subventionsbericht 2024 deckt die Jahre 2023 und 2024 anhand der Plandaten für den Bundeshaushalt ab. Dabei konzentriert er sich auf die Finanzhilfen des Bundes und gibt einen Überblick über die Steuervergünstigungen der Gebietskörperschaften. Zusätzlich werden die gesamten...

Digital businesses continue to grow and generate substantial revenue in market jurisdictions without maintaining a physical presence. They mainly rely on intangibles, user data and user engagement. International tax rules have not kept pace with these developments, leaving many jurisdictions...

Le Rapport sur la situation économique de la République démocratique du Congo examine la performance récente du pays en matière de croissance ainsi que ses politiques macroéconomiques, offrant ainsi une base pour le dialogue avec le gouvernement et les autres parties prenantes. La...

The digitalization of low-income economies has made it easier for governments to collect tax, yet many still fail to raise adequate revenues. Why would policy makers in urgent need of resources not fully leverage these new tools? I argue that governments remain constrained by public opinion:...

Civil wars often erode state sovereignty, as institutions are replaced or co-opted by armed groups that establish informal governance structures. Among these, rebel taxation emerges as a key tool for financing wartime activities and administering territories. We explore whether rebel taxation...

Digital businesses continue to grow and generate substantial revenue in market jurisdictions without maintaining a physical presence. They mainly rely on intangibles, user data and user engagement. International tax rules have not kept pace with these developments, leaving many jurisdictions...

We find that patents registered by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in tax havens help avoid taxes in the EU but fail to increase the total factor productivity (TFP) of EU-located group members. We conclude that many of those patents' prime purpose is not to make technology available and then...

New data from the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law project shed light on the gender dimensions of taxation and public spending—two key fiscal policy tools that impact economic growth and poverty reduction. This working paper presents new cross-country evidence and descriptive...

This volume contains the papers presented at the conference "Reich, Recht und Schulden," which took place on September 12, 2025, at the House of Finance of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. The papers address various aspects of the financial history of the Holy Roman Empire between 1648 and...

This paper estimates the tax capacity and tax effort of the nine provinces in South Africa, allowing for the assessment of the revenue-mobilizing ability of provinces and overall tax system efficiency. Provincial tax capacity and effort is estimated via a stochastic frontier approach using the...

We exploit Germany's temporary three-percentage-point VAT cut in the second half of 2020 to study the spending response to unconventional fiscal policy. We use survey and scanner data on household consumption expenditures and their perceived pass-through of the tax change into prices, and a RANK...