[PDF] Tax Reform In Transition Economies And Its Impact On Economic Performance eBook

Author : Slawomir P. Walenczykowski
Publisher :
Page : 75 pages
File Size : 39,92 MB
Release : 2002-06-01
Category :
ISBN : 9781423508281

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Starting with Hungary in 1984 and followed thereafter by other countries in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union, the process of transition from centrally planned socialist economies to market oriented economies has been characterized by uneven performance. Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovenia have each made significant progress in economic, political and judicial reforms while Russia, and many other countries of the former Soviet Union have lagged in implementing broad economic and political reforms and their economic performance has suffered as a result. Other countries from Central and Eastern Europe are placed between those two extremes. The objective of my thesis is to examine the development of effective and efficient tax systems in the transitional economies and the influence of tax reform on economic performance. Without an effective tax system the state is unable to collect revenues for financing government expenditures; 'gray zones' develop in the economy, which discourage investors and private entrepreneurs; and the rule of law diminishes over time. Without systemic tax reform economic growth will slow or decline; the social costs of reform will increase; and political pressure will mount to slow or reverse reforms.

Author : Jorge Martinez-Vazquez
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 49,99 MB
Release : 2009
Category :
ISBN :

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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 the past six years, developments of interest to policymakers and economists alike. Conditions in these Countries in Transition (CITs) have presented a formidable challenge to reformers, a challenge that has been met with bold, rapid action in some cases; timid, tepid response in others. Now, as CITs enter the seventh year of transition, perhaps lessons can be drawn from their experience which may be of value in the future to those countries that will, in time, be in transition from socialist to market-based economic systems. The goal of this paper is to review the transition experience in tax reform over the past six years, offer a preliminary evaluation of the impact of different approaches to tax reform, and extract lessons from the successes and failures of this experience. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. We start with a brief review of tax systems in socialist planned economies in Section 2, and then move on to an examination of the enduring legacy of tax systems under central planning in Section 3. Many of the failures, problems, and idiosyncrasies of the reform efforts during the transition can be traced to the past, when these tax systems started. In Section 4, we review the two general paradigms for reform that policymakers faced early on in the transition: the adoption wholesale of a western-type, modern tax system or a tax system adapted to transition economies. Many of the current problems in the fiscal arena can be partially attributed to the scope, pace, and stability of the reform process. In Section 5 we offer a short description of the evaluation and current structure of tax systems in CITs. In Section 6 we make a preliminary attempt to quantify the impact of different approaches to tax reform on economic performance of CITs. In Section 7, we summarize the lessons from tax reform in CITs. While no strategy could be comprehensive and infallible, there are lessons to extract from the concrete experiences, relatively better practices and mistakes of CITs for the remaining centrally-planned economies when they in turn embark upon comprehensive market reform.

Author : Iris Claus
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
Page : 341 pages
File Size : 37,7 MB
Release : 2010-01-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1849804990

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This book brings together research from some of the world s leading tax economists to discuss appropriate directions for tax reform in small open economies. The eminent contributors (including Altshuler, Creedy, Freebairn, Gravelle, Heady, Kalb, Sørensen and Zodrow) investigate the beneficial directions for medium-term tax reform in the light of global developments and lessons from the latest taxation research. In addressing this issue, they review recent advances in both the theoretical and empirical tax literature and reform evidence from individual countries. Topics covered include the impact of taxes on economic performance; international and corporate taxation; personal tax and welfare systems; environmental taxation; and country-specific tax reform experiences. Bringing together leading international experts to explore specific policy reforms, this book will prove essential reading for academics and researchers of public economics, fiscal policy and tax reform. It will also be warmly welcomed both by undergraduate and graduate students of public economics or the economics of taxation, as well as policymakers and government officials working in the area of tax policy.

Author : OECD
Publisher : OECD Publishing
Page : 157 pages
File Size : 24,26 MB
Release : 2010-11-03
Category :
ISBN : 9264091084

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This report investigates how tax structures can best be designed to support GDP per capita growth.

Author : Mr.Vito Tanzi
Publisher : International Monetary Fund
Page : 28 pages
File Size : 24,64 MB
Release : 1991-03-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1451921055

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The transition from a command to a market economy requires profound reforms of the tax system. Such a transition will put downward pressures on the level of taxation at a time when public expenditure remains high. This paper outlines the main characteristics of the tax systems in centrally-planned economies. It describes recent changes in those tax systems. Finally, it discusses the major difficulties that will be faced, and the errors that must be avoided, during the transition.

Author : Richard Miller Bird
Publisher : World Bank Publications
Page : 92 pages
File Size : 22,64 MB
Release : 1993
Category : Decentralization in government
ISBN :

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Designing a well-functioning intergovernmenal fiscal system is essential to the success of all the transitional economies' major reform goals: privatization, macroeconomic stability, more efficient performance and economic growth, and an adequate social safety net.

Author : James Alm
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 498 pages
File Size : 34,96 MB
Release : 2005-11-29
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780387299129

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This book presents 15 original papers and commentaries by a distinguished group of tax policy and tax administration experts. Using international examples, they highlight the state of knowledge of tax reform, present new thinking about the issue, and analyze useful policy options. The book’s general goal is to examine the current and emerging challenges facing tax reformers and to assess possible directions future reforms are likely to take. More specific themes include distributional issues, how to tax capital income, how to design specific taxes (e.g., the income tax, the value-added tax, the property tax), how to consider the politics and administrative aspects of tax reform, and how to combine the separate insights into comprehensive tax reform.

Author : Henry Aaron
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
Page : 544 pages
File Size : 27,23 MB
Release : 2010-12-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780815707295

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The tax system profoundly affects countless aspects of private behavior. It is a powerful policy influence on the distribution of income and it is the one aspect of government that almost every citizen cannot avoid. With tax reform high on the political agenda, this book brings together studies of leading tax economists and lawyers to assess the various reform proposals and examine the effects of tax reform in several distinct areas. Together, these studies and comments on them present a balanced evaluation of professional opinion on the issues that will be critical in the tax reform debate. The book addresses annual and lifetime distributional effects, saving, investment, transitional problems, simplification, home ownership and housing prices, charitable groups, international taxation, financial intermediaries and insurance, labor supply, and health insurance. In addition to Henry Aaron and William Gale, the contributors include Alan Auerbach, University of California, Berkeley; David Bradford, Princeton University; Charles Clotfelter, Duke University; Eric Engen, Federal Reserve; Don Fullerton, University of Texas; Jon Gruber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Patric Hendershott, Ohio State; David Ling, University of Florida; Ronald Perlman, Covington & Burling; Diane Lim Rogers, Congressional Budget Office; John Karl Scholz, University of Wisconsin; Joel Slemrod, University of Michigan; and Robert Triest, University of California, Davis.

Author : Takatoshi Ito
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 362 pages
File Size : 48,18 MB
Release : 2007-12-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0226387003

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The rapid emergence of East Asia as an important geopolitical-economic entity has been one of the most visible and striking changes in the international economy in recent years. With that emergence has come an increased need for understanding the problems of interdependence. As a step toward meeting this need, the National Bureau of Economic Research joined with the Korea Development Institute to sponsor this volume, which focuses on the complexities of tax reform in a global economy. Experts from Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Japan, and Thailand, as well as the United States, Canada, and Israel examine the major tax programs of the 1980s and their domestic and international economic effects. The analyses reveal similarities between the United States and countries in East Asia in political constraints on policy making, and taken together they show how growing interdependence interacts with domestic economic and political concerns to affect issues as politically vital as tax reform. Economists, policymakers, and members of the business community will benefit from these studies.