Jorge Martinez-vazquez

Ukraine: Assessment of the Implementation of the New Formula Based Inter-Governmental Transfer System

Decentralized countries around the world use different institutional set-ups to assure that the system of local government finances achieves the objectives sought by the public sector through the...

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Signe Zeikate

Since independence, Ukraine has tried to function with the system of public finance it inherited from Soviet times. Experience has demonstrated that this system, based on an outdated budget law of...

Designing Intergovernmental Equalization Transfers with Imperfect Data: Concepts, Practices, and Lessons

Fiscal Decentralization and The Functional Composition of Public Expenditures

The design of intergovernmental equalization transfer mechanisms, whether as the result of the introduction of a new transfer scheme or as part of the revision of an existing one, is a key element of...

Choosing between Centralized and Decentralized Models of Tax Administration

This study examines the relationship between fiscal decentralization and the functional composition of public expenditures. We develop a theoretical model based on a distance-sensitive representative...

Fiscal Decentralization,Macrostability, and Growth

The international experience shows a variety of approaches to the organization and degree of decentralization in tax administration. It is quite common to observe, even in countries that are...

Attracting FDI: Are Other Government Policies More Important than Taxation in Attracting FDI?

This paper examines how fiscal decentralization may influence economic growth. Previous research on this question has primarily focused on the potential direct relationship between decentralization...

Timothy J. Goodspeed, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Li Zhang

This paper attempts to broaden the existing empirical literature on foreign direct investment by incorporating government expenditures (both investment in infrastructure and consumption) as well as...

Effects of Tax Morale on Tax Compliance: Experimental and Survey Evidence

Ronald G. Cummings, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Michael McKee, Benno Torgler

There is considerable evidence that enforcement efforts can increase tax compliance. However, there must be other forces at work because observed compliance levels cannot be fully explained by the...

The impact of NAFTA and options for tax reform in Mexico

Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, Chen, Duanjie

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a profound impact on Mexico's economy and institutions. Clearly, no consideration of tax reform can ignore its role. The thinking about tax...

Benno Torgler, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

This paper studies the evolutions of tax morale in Spain in the post-Franco era. Tax morale, defined as the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, might be a key determinant of the actual degree of tax...

Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth: A Comparative Study of China and India

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider

Although there are obvious differences in the political systems of China and India, there are surprising similarities in their respective approaches to decentralization. Both countries face similar...

Russian Attitudes Toward Paying Taxes – Before, During, and After the Transition

Benno Torgler, James Alm, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

This paper examines citizens’ attitudes toward paying taxes – what is sometimes termed their “tax morale”, or the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes – focusing on the experience of...

Contract Enforcement, Institutional Stability, and the Level and Maturity of International Debt

Wasseem Mina, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

Contract enforcement and institutional stability play an important role in determining the level and maturity of international debt. Contract enforcement is modeled as a fixed cost that investors...

Regional-Local Dimension of Russia's Fiscal Equalization

Are Government Policies More Important Than Taxation in Attracting FDI

National equalization policies often are concerned with the quality and accessibility of services delivered at the lowest level (or local) government. When these policies are implemented in a...

Timothy Goodspeed, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, JLi Zhang

This paper attempts to broaden the existing empirical literature on foreign direct investment by incorporating government expenditures (both investment in infrastructure and consumption) as well as...

Effects of Tax Morale on Tax Compliance: Experimental and Survey Evidence

Ronald G. Cummings, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Michael McKee, Benno Torgler

There is considerable evidence that enforcement efforts can increase tax compliance. However, there must be other forces at work because observed compliance levels cannot be fully explained by the...

Tax Effort: The Impact of Corruption, Voice and Accountability

Richard M. Bird, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Benno Torgler

In this paper we argue that a more legitimate and responsive state is an essential factor for a more adequate level of tax effort in developing countries. While at first glance giving such advice to...

Tax Effort: The Impact of Corruption, Voice and Accountability

This paper studies the evolution of tax morale in Spain in the post-Franco era. In contrast to the previous tax compliance literature, the current paper investigates tax morale as the dependent...

Richard Bird, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Benno Torgler

In this paper we argue that a more legitimate and responsive state is an essential factor for a more adequate level of tax effort in developing countries. While at first glance giving such advice to...

Tax policy design in the presence of social preferences: some experimental evidence

Lucy F. Ackert, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider

This paper reports the results of experiments designed to examine whether a taste for fairness affects people’s preferred tax structure. Building on the Fehr and Schmidt (1999) model, we devise a...

Sequencing fiscal decentralization

Bahl, Roy, Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge

While there is extensive knowledge about how to design fiscal decentralization policies, considerably less is understood about how a decentralization program should be sequenced and implemented....

Societal Institutions and Tax Effort in Developing Countries

Richard M. Bird, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Benno Torgler

Effects of Culture on Tax Compliance: A Cross Check of Experimental and Survey Evidence

Ronald G. Cummings, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Michael McKee, Benno Torgler

There is considerable evidence that enforcement efforts can increase tax compliance. However, there must be other forces at work because observed compliance levels cannot be fully explained by the...

Tax Reform in The Tax Reform Experiment in Transitional Countries

IMF Conditionality and Objections: The Russian Case

The last decade has been witness to one of the largest tax experiments in economic history, the transformation from centrally-planned to market-based tax systems. The cultural and institutional...

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Felix Rioja, Samuel Skogstad, Neven Valev

Emerging economies in crisis typically request assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). After evaluating the situation, the IMF makes a loan available to the country conditional on...

Making Decentralization Work: The Case of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan

Era Dabla-Norris, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, John Norregaard

Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan have all carried-out comprehensive reforms of their inter-governmental fiscal systems in the decade since the inception of transition; and all three countries are in...

Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth

NAFTA and Mexico's Tax Policy Reform

This paper reviews the current knowledge on an issue of increasing policy interest: what impact fiscal decentralization has on economic growth. Fiscal decentralization may indeed have a direct impact...

Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, Duanje Chen

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had a significant effect on Mexico’s economy and institutions. The ongoing consideration of tax reform in Mexico requires an evaluation of the...

Cross Cultural Comparisions of Tax Compliance Behavior

Ronald G. Cummings, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Michael McKee

To fully understand differences in compliance behavior across cultures one needs to understand differences in the tax administration and differences in the citizen attitudes toward the governments of...

The Impact of Budgets on the Poor: Tax and Benefit

An Analysis of Indonesia's Transfer System: Recent Performance and Future Prospects

One of the most important goals of government policy is to address inequalities in the distribution of income and to try to improve the welfare of the poor. An important part of the theory and...

Bambang Brodjonegoro, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

Fiscal decentralization in Indonesia had been a slow-burning affair since the mid 1970s, with the country being one of the most centralized in the world, until the “Big Bang” of the 1999 reforms,...

On the Use of Budgetary Norms as a Tool for Fiscal Management

IMF Lending, Maturity of International Debt and Moral Hazard

The use of expenditure needs, sometimes referred to as "expenditure norms", "budgetary norms", or "minimum standards", is important in the formulation of budgets and, especially, in the establishment...

Wasseem Mina, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

International Monetary Fund lending continues to be criticized for possibly generating moral hazard in international financial markets. The empirical examination of this issue has focused exclusively...

Descentralización en Latinoamérica desde una perspectiva de países pequeños: Bolivia, El Salvador, Ecuador y Nicaragua

Francisco Javier Arz, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es examinar, comparar y extraer lecciones del proceso de descentralización en cuatro países latinoamericanos de pequeño tamaño. Varias lecciones se...

Asymmetric Federalism in Russia: Cure or Poison?

Local Government Reform in Tanzania: Considerations for the Development of a System of Formula-Based Grants

In the early years of its existence, the Russian Federation adopted a system of differential treatment of its regions in order to cope with the great degree of diversity present in them. This paper...

Multiple Modes of Tax Evasion: Theory and Evidence from the TCMP

Since 1999, Tanzania has been actively pursuing reforms of way in which the central government finances local government activities. Although local government authorities in Tanzania play a...

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider

In general, theoretical and empirical studies of tax compliance conclude that increasing penalties and detection probabilities increase compliance. However, these conclusions are based on relatively...

Efficiency Effects of Mexico's Tax Reform On Corporate Capital Investment

Duanjie Chen, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

On January 1 2002 the Mexican Congress approved the 2002 budget, ratifying a US $ 7.5 billion tax package, which included a new Income Tax Law. This tax package reflected a second attempt by...

The System of Equalization Transfers in China

Zhihua Zhang, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

In 1994 in its push toward the establishment of a market economy, China introduced a fundamental reform of its tax and intergovernmental fiscal relations systems, which became known as the...

Fiscal Federalism and Economic Reform in China

Roy Bahl, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

Because of history, size and economic potential China is a force to reckon with: 9.6 million square kilometers populated by 1.26 billion people. China has a varied geography. Moving from west to...

Subnational Government Structure and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations

Jameson Boex, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Andrei Timofeev

Many countries around the world are currently engaged in one way or another in policy debates or reforms of their system of intergovernmental fiscal relations. While the policy dynamics vary greatly...

Effects of culture on tax compliance: A cross check of experimental and survey evidence

Ronald G. Cummings, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Michael McKee, Benno Torgler

There is considerable evidence that enforcement efforts can increase tax compliance. However, there must be other forces at work because observed compliance levels cannot be fully explained by the...

Making Fiscal Decentralization Work in Vietnam

Linking expenditure assignments and intergovernmental grants in Indonesia

Vietnam is a poor country with large and increasing needs in infrastructure, education, health, and other areas of the public sector. The current policy of the Government of Vietnam (GOV) is not to...

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Jameson Boex, Gabe Ferrazzi

Indonesia is currently in the process of evaluating and revising the decentralization legislation and the progress made during the first stage of its “big bang” decentralization reforms. This...

Societal Institutions and Tax Effort in Developing Countries

Richard M. Bird, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Benno Torgler

“Will underdeveloped countries learn to tax?” asked Nicholas Kaldor (1963), forty years ago. Underlying this question is the assumption that if a country wishes to become ‘developed’ it needs...

Tax Policy Design in The Presence of Social Preferences: Some Experimental Evidence

Lucy F. Ackert, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider

This paper reports the results of experiments designed to examine whether a taste for fairness affects people’s preferred tax structure. Building on the Fehr and Schmidt (1999) model we devise a...

The Determinants of the Incidence of Intergovernmental Grants: A Survey of the International Experience

Making Fiscal Decentralization Work in Vietnam

Although the presence of objective formula-based grants is an important component of a stable, equitable and efficient system of intergovernmental fiscal relations, the final incidence of grants is...

India: Fiscal Condition of the States, International Experience,and Options for Reform: Volume 1

Vietnam is a poor country with large and increasing needs in infrastructure, education, health, and other areas of the public sector. The current policy of the Government of Vietnam (GOV) is not to...

Roy Bahl, Eunice Heredia-Ortiz, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider

India is a Union of 28 States, two Union Territories with legislatures, and five Union Territories without legislatures. The 7th Schedule of India’s Constitution provides for a separate State List,...

Effects of Tax Morale on Tax Compliance: Experimental and Survey Evidence

Ronald G. Cummings, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Michael McKee, Benno Torgler

There is considerable evidence that enforcement efforts can increase tax compliance. However, there must be other forces at work because observed compliance levels cannot be fully explained by the...

Experimental Evidence for Tax Policy Design

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider, Lucy F. Ackert, Ann Gillette

There is considerable evidence that enforcement efforts can increase tax compliance. However, there must be other forces at work because observed compliance levels cannot be fully explained by the...

A Methodological Note on the Reform of Equalization Transfers in the Russian Federation

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Jameson Boex

The current mechanism of fiscal equalization in the Russian Federation is complex, unstable and not transparent. In addition, it does not appear to be accomplishing its main goal: the equalization of...

Fiscal Capacity: An Overview of Concepts and Measurements Issues and Their Applicability in the Russian Federation

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, LF Jameson Boex

Intergovernmental fiscal relations in the Russian Federation have evolved significantly since the onset of economic reforms in 1991. Since then, the Russian government has set out to replace the old...

An Analysis of Alternative Measures of Fiscal Capacity for Regions of the Russian Federation

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, LF Jameson Boex

Some measure of fiscal capacity should be an important component of the system of equalization transfers for the regions of the Russian Federation. In order to enhance the understanding of the...

Principios Para Una Estrategia De Descentralizacirn Fiscal En Nicaragua

Tax Reform in Transition Economies: Experiences and Lessons

Decentralization, Nicarragua

Fiscal Decentralization, Economic Growth, and Democratic Governance

As the governments of countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union continue to grapple with the challenges of transition, many significant policy developments have already taken place over...

Estonia: Fiscal Management and the Budget Process

The goal of this paper is to review the state of our knowledge in the economics literature on the causal relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth and democratic governance,...

Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Vietnam

Estonian authorities have made remarkable progress in a relatively short period of time by putting into place the elements of a modern budget process and fiscal management system. This progress is...

Multi-Year Budgeting: A Review of International Practices and Lessons for Developing and Transitional Economies

Intergovernmental fiscal relations play a fundamental role in the economic and social development of Vietnam. As in all unitary forms of government, the central government sets national policies and...

LF Jameson Boex, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Robert McNab

In recent years many developed countries have moved to develop their annual budget process in astrategic multi-year framework. While a common feature of multi-year budgeting approaches is...

Fiscal Decentralization in the Russian Federation During the Transition

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Jameson Boex

Intergovernmental fiscal relations may be the most contentious issue in the Russian Federation today. This is the result of the complexity of the problems intertwined with intergovernmental...

Criminal behavior in general equilibrium: Who benefits from crime?

Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, Seaman, Bruce A.

Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth

Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, McNab, Robert M.

Selfishness versus public `regardingness' in voting behavior

Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge

IMF Conditionality and Objections: The Russian Case

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Felix Rioja, Samuel Skogstad, Neven Valev

Emerging economies in crisis typically request assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). After evaluating the situation, the IMF makes a loan available to the country, conditional on...

Using Human-Capital Theory to Establish a Potential-Income Tax

Dagney Faulk, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Sally Wallace

There are good arguments for an individual income tax on potential income, but a drawback to such a tax is the significant administrative concern regardingits implementation. This paper argues that...

Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Romania: Challenges and Options for Reform

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Cristian Sepúlveda, Gabriel Leonardo, Benjamin Miller

Right after Romania’s change in regime in December 1989, profound changes in the structure and functioning of government and the economy started to take place. Since the early 1990s the...

Who Bears the Burden of Taxes on Labor Income in Russia?

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider, Riatu Qibthiyyah, Sally Wallace

In 2001 the Russian government introduced a bold reform of its tax system, which included the adoption of a flat-rate income tax. Until then, only a few countries, including the transition countries...

The Practice of Fiscal Federalism in Spain

Julio López Laborda, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Carlos Monasterio Escudero

Over the past 25 years when the rapid decentralization was taking place, Spain enjoyed high rates of economic growth and prosperity, spotted with unusually high rates of unemployment associated with...

Pakistan: A Preliminary Assessment of the Federal Tax System

Equalization Transfers in Romania: Current System and Proposals for Reform

Pakistan’s tax system has undergone significant reforms over the last two decades, leading to the modernization of direct and indirect taxes. More recent times have seen the rationalization of...

Juan Luís Gómez, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Cristian Sepúlveda

Romania has been actively reforming its intergovernmental transfer system during the last years. The new Law on Local Public Finance, which will come into force in January 2007, will involve...

Are Government Policies More Important Than Taxation in Attracting FDI?

Timothy Goodspeed, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, JLi Zhang

This paper attempts to broaden the existing empirical literature on foreign direct investment by incorporating government expenditure policies, such as investment in infrastructure, and institutional...

The Role of Provincial Policies in Fiscal Equalization Outcomes in China

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Baoyun Qiao, Li Zhang

In this paper, we use pooled data for central-provincial and provincial-local governments in 2000-01, overall involving over 4000 sub-provincial governments, to assess China 's sub-national fiscal...

Budget Policy and Income Distribution

Revenue Assignments in the Practice of Fiscal Decentralization

one main goal of fiscal incidence analysis is to contribute to the design of good government policy. The right policy choices require information on which groups are likely to pay particular tax...

Using Human Capital Theory to Establish a Potential Income Tax

Over the past two decades there has been an unprecedented move toward decentralized governance all over the world. These changes have taken special significance in many developing and transitional...

Dagney Faulk, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Sally Wallace

There are good arguments for an individual income tax on “potential income”, but the drawback to such a tax is the significant administrative concern regarding the implementation of the tax. This...

Myth and Reality of Flat Tax Reform: Micro Estimates of Tax Evasion Response and Welfare Effects in Russia

This paper studies the evolution of tax morale in Spain in the post-Franco era. In contrast to the previous tax compliance literature, the current paper investigates tax morale as the dependent...

Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Klara Sabirianova Peter

Using micro-level data, we examine the effects of Russia’s 2001 flat rate income tax reform on consumption, income, and tax evasion. We use the gap between household expenditures and reported...

Myth and Reality of Flat Tax Reform: Micro Estimates of Tax Evasion Response and Welfare Effects in Russia

Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Klara Sabirianova Peter

Using micro-level data, we examine the effects of Russia’s 2001 flat rate income tax reform on consumption, income, and tax evasion. We use the gap between household expenditures and reported...

SOCIAL PREFERENCES AND TAX POLICY DESIGN: SOME EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE

LUCY F. ACKERT, JORGE MARTINEZ-VAZQUEZ, MARK RIDER

"This article reports the results of a set of experiments designed to examine whether a taste for fairness affects people's preferred tax structure. Using the Fehr and Schmidt model, we devise a...

Voting for wage concessions: The case of the 1982 GM-UAW negotiations.

Bruce E. Kaufman, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

The authors of this paper use the median voter model to predict the patterns of rank-and-file voting on wage concessions in a multiplant setting, then test those predictions using data from the 1982...

An Assessment of Fiscal Decentralization in Georgia

Jameson Boex, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Michael Schaeffer

An Assessment of Fiscal Decentralization in Armenia

Jameson Boex, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Andrey Timofeev

Voting for wage concessions: The case of the 1982 GM-UAW negotiations.

Bruce E. Kaufman, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez

The authors of this paper use the median voter model to predict the patterns of rank-and-file voting on wage concessions in a multiplant setting, then test those predictions using data from the 1982...

Inflation and the Real Growth of State and Local Government Expenditures.

Bahl, Roy, Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge

Race and the Structure of School Districts in the United States,

Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, Rider, Mark, Walker, Mary Beth

Alternative value estimates of owner-occupied housing: Evidence on sample selection bias and systematic errors

Ihlanfeldt, Keith R., Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge

Budgeting and Fiscal Management in Transitional Economies

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Jameson Boex

The past ten years have been witness to one of the largest experiments in economic history, namely the transition of centrally planned economies to market-based economies. While policy reform in...

Mexico: An Evaluation of the Main Features of the Tax System

Growth and Equity Tradeoff in Decentralization Policy: China's Experience

Mexico's tax system is a paradox. The tax policy and tax administration reforms of the late 1980s and early 1990s delivered a tax structure that is in many ways comparable, if not superior, to that...

Baoyun Qiao, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Yongsheng Xu

The paper uses China's recent experience to investigate the potential tradeoff between economic growth and regional equity in the design of fiscal decentralization policy. Although present in other...

Tax Systems in Transition Economics

Tax Effort in Developing Countries and High Income Countries: The Impact of Corruption, Voice and Accountability

This paper presents an overview of taxation in the transitional economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. The governments of transitional economies have been...

Bird, Richard M., Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, Torgler, Benno

In this paper we argue that a more legitimate and responsive state is an essential factor for a more adequate level of tax effort in developing countries and high income countries. While at first...

Municipal Capital Maintenance and Fiscal Distress.

Bumgarner, Mary, Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, Sjoquist, David L

This paper formalizes and empirically tests the hypothesis that the deficient maintenance of public infrastructure is caused by fiscal distress. The authors utilize a production-decision framework in...

Regional-local dimension of Russia's fiscal equalization

Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, Timofeev, Andrey

National equalization policies often are concerned with the quality and accessibility of services delivered at the lowest (or local) level of government. When these policies are implemented in a...

The tradeoff between growth and equity in decentralization policy: China's experience

Qiao, Baoyun, Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, Xu, Yongsheng

This paper investigates the potential tradeoff between economic growth and regional equity in the design of fiscal decentralization policy in the context of China's experience. We develop a...

Myth and Reality of Flat Tax Reform: Micro Estimates of Tax Evasion Response and Welfare Effects in Russia

This paper studies the evolution of tax morale in Spain in the post-Franco era. In contrast to the previous tax compliance literature, the current paper investigates tax morale as the dependent...

Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Klara Sabirianova Peter

Using micro-level data, we examine the effects of Russia's 2001 flat rate income tax reform on consumption, income, and tax evasion. We use the gap between household expenditures and reported...

The Municipal Transfer System in Nicaragua: Evaluation and Proposals for Reform

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Cristian Sepúlveda

For almost 20 years, the Nicaraguan authorities have been implementing a fiscal decentralization process to devolve an increasing degree of autonomy to municipalities. As a part of this process, and...

Pocketing and Deceiving: The Behavior of Agency in a Donor - Delivery Agency - Recipient Organization

Baoyun Qiao, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Yongsheng Xu

This paper presents a simple model to analyze the corrupt behavior of the delivery agency in a donor-delivery agency-recipient organization. Corrupt behavior of the delivery agency can take two...

Risk Tolerance, Self-Interest, and Social Preferences

Lucy F. Ackert, Ann B. Gillette, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider

We use an experimental method to investigate whether systematic relationships exist across distinct aspects of individual preferences: risk aversion in monetary outcomes, altruism in a twoperson...

A fiscal perspective of state rescaling

Myth and Reality of Flat Tax Reform: Micro Estimates of Tax Evasion Response and Welfare Effects in Russia

Recent socio-spatial studies point out a number of ongoing trends in the 'scale division of labour of the state', including among others, 'destatization', 'denationalization' and...

Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Klara Sabirianova Peter

We examine the effects of Russia's 2001 flat rate income tax reform on consumption, income, and tax evasion. We use the gap between household expenditures and reported earnings as a proxy for tax...

Tax Morale and Tax Evasion in Latin America

This paper studies the evolution of tax morale in Spain in the post-Franco era. In contrast to the previous tax compliance literature, the current paper investigates tax morale as the dependent...

Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth

In this paper we examine taxation and tax compliance in LAC countries and beyond, focusing on several main questions. What is meant by the “informal sector”? What is the size of informal sector...

South Africa’s Provincial Equitable Share: An Assessment of Issues and Proposals for Reform

This paper reviews the current knowledge on an issue of increasing policy interest: what impact fiscal decentralization has on economic growth. Fiscal decentralization may indeed have a direct impact...

An Assessment of Fiscal Decentralization in Macedonia

The design of any system of transfers is a complex matter, and in practice very few countries are able to get it right, especially at the start of a process of decentralized system of finance. It is...

Nicoletta Feruglio, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Andrey Timofeev

In this report we highlight some of the progress that has been made in the reform of the system of intergovernmental fiscal relations in Macedonia, but we dedicate more space and attention to those...

Do Tax Amnesties Work? The Revenue Effects of Tax Amnesties during the Transition in the Russian Federation

James Alm, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Sally Wallace

Governments of all kinds have frequently and increasingly turned to tax amnesties as part of their fiscal programs. An amnesty typically allows individuals or firms to pay delinquent taxes without...

Fiscal Decentralization in the People’s Democratic Republic of Lao

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Juan Luis Gomez, Guevera Yao

The People’s Democratic Republic of Lao (Lao PDR), landlocked between Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, China, and Viet Nam in the core of Southeast Asia, accounts for a population of some 5.8 million...

Fiscal Decentralization and Public Sector Employment: A Cross-Country Analysis

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Ming-Hung Yao

This paper investigates the relationship between public sector employment and fiscal decentralization. We develop a theoretical framework modeling the interactions between the central and...

Revenue Assignments in the Practice of Fiscal Decentralization

Fiscal Perspective of State Rescaling

Over the past two decades there has been an unprecedented move toward decentralized governance all over the world. These changes have taken special significance in many developing and transitional...

Decentralising the public sector: Transition and the Recent Reforms in Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in the Czech Republic

Recent socio-spatial studies point out a number of ongoing trends in the “scale division of labor of the state,” including among others, “destatization,” "denationalization, and...

Decentralizing Egypt: Not Just Another Economic Reform

Systemtransformation, Finanzreform, Internationale Beziehungen, Finanzsektor, Tschechische Republik, Systemic transition, Fiscal reform, International relations, Financial sector, Czech Republic

The Assignment of the Property Tax: Should Developing Countries Follow the Conventional Wisdom?

In this paper we take stock of what the current system of sub-national governments is like in Egypt and then build on this assessment to suggest the form of decentralization that may be both...

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider

The goal of this paper is to revisit the issue of the appropriate assignment of the property tax within the context of a fiscally decentralized system. We examine whether the conventional wisdom of...

Reigning in Provincial Fiscal 'Owners': Decentralization in Lao P.D.R.

Juan Luís Gómez, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Cristian Sepúlveda

Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a small single-party State with an already long but erratic history of decentralization. Political drives towards decentralization and re-centralization have...

Public Policies and FDI Location: Differences between Developing and Developed Countries

Timothy Goodspeed, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Li Zhang

Host country government officials in developing and developed countries alike would like to know the impact of their public policies on foreign investment in their countries. Unfortunately, the...

Pakistan Tax Policy Report: Tapping Tax Bases for Development

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Kaspar Richter

Pakistan’s economic development is once again threatened by macroeconomic imbalances. Broadly speaking, high growth in the 1960s was followed by low growth in the 1970s, and high growth in the...

Tax morale affects tax compliance: Evidence from surveys and an artefactual field experiment

Cummings, Ronald G., Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge, McKee, Michael, Torgler, Benno

Our working hypothesis is that cross-cultural differences in tax compliance behavior have foundations in the institutions of tax administration and citizen assessment of the quality of governance....

DO TAX AMNESTIES WORK? THE REVENUE EFFECTS OF TAX AMNESTIES DURING THE TRANSITION IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

James Alm, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Sally Wallace

Governments of all kinds have frequently and increasingly turned to tax amnesties as part of their fiscal programs. An amnesty typically allows individuals or firms to pay delinquent taxes without...

Tax Morale and Tax Evasion in Latin American Countries

Myth and Reality of Flat Tax Reform: Tax Evasion and Real Side Response of Russian Households

It is hard for tax administrations to levy and collect taxes anywhere and anytime. However, taxing certain kinds of activities, sectors, or individuals – the so-called “informal sector” – is...

Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Klara Sabirianova Peter

We use detailed micro-level data on consumption and income for a 1998-2004 panel of Russian households to study the effects of the flat income tax reform in 2001. We show that the gap between...

Decentralization Measures Revisited