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Impact of Covid-19 on the Indian Economy: An Analysis of Fiscal Scenarios

Amidst the economic slowdown triggered by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in India there have been many demands for the government to announce a large fiscal stimulus to support the economy. E...

by Ila Patnaik | On 08 Oct 2020

Inequality in a Global Perspective

The basic story of global inequality in the last three decades has been an overall decline, but one which is composed of quite intricate patterns. There has been a decline in between country inequalit...

by Ravi Kanbur | On 08 Jun 2020

Inter-Governmental Fiscal Transfers in the Presence of Revenue Uncertainty: The Case of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India

A comprehensive multistage Value Added Tax (VAT) system, viz., Goods and Services Tax (GST), is introduced in India since 1 July 2017. GST encompasses various taxes from Union and State indirect tax b...

by Sacchidananda Mukherjee | On 02 Apr 2019

Impact of Changes in Fiscal Federalism and Fourteenth Finance Commission Recommendations Scenarios on States Autonomy and Social Sector Priorities

This paper compares the additional gains from higher tax devolution in the post 14th FC period, with the additional burden due to the withdrawal of certain central schemes and the changes in the shar...

by Amarnath H. K. | On 30 Mar 2019

Sri Lanka’s Macroeconomic Challenges: A Tale of Two Deficits

The paper provides a narrative of Sri Lanka’s history of twin deficits, examines macroeconomic performance from the lens of twin deficits, and discusses the policies adopted to address macroeconomic i...

by Dushni Weerakoon | On 28 Mar 2019

Services and Manufacturing in Global Value Chains: Is the Dstinction Obsolete?

This paper introduces a taxonomy of service activities in GVCs and describes the main statistical challenges in assessing the contribution of manufacturing and services to output, value added, or trad...

by Sébastien Miroudot | On 07 Mar 2019

Rebalancing the Economy and Reforming the Fiscal System of the People’s Republic of China

The goal of the note is to lay out and discuss a package of reforms that could be consistent with the objectives of the government. The fiscal instruments that we consider here include the division of...

by Roy Bahl | On 07 Mar 2019

Explaining the contractualisation of India’s workforce

The employment structure of India’s organised manufacturing sector has undergone substantial changes over the last decade with a steep rise in the use of contract workers in place of directly hired wo...

by Radhicka Kapoor | On 03 Feb 2019

Impact of Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers on Gender Equality in India: An Empirical Analysis

Intergovernmental fiscal transfers (IGFT) are, in theory, neither good nor bad for tackling gender inequalities. Fiscal federalism with asymmetry in revenue and expenditure assignments inevitably lead...

by Janet G. Stotsky | On 14 Jan 2019

Optimal Regulation of P2P Lending for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This paper describes and evaluates the range of P2P lending systems on offer to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in several countries, considering different regulatory regimes. In some countr...

by Naoko Nemoto | On 07 Jan 2019

Indian Banks and the Prevention of Corruption Act: Freedom and Discipline

Selfless activists like Mr. Pai teach us the importance of continuously interrogating the functioning of our democracy. The NPA issue has persisted for almost a decade. It has eroded the profitability...

by Ashima Goyal | On 29 Oct 2018

An Assessment of the Fiscal Features of the PDP Laban Model of Philippine Federalism 1.0 and the Gonzales-De Vera Federal Model

The paper highlights the importance of the design of the fiscal features of the federal system of government in ensuring that the potential benefits from its adoption are realized. The economic litera...

by Rosario G. Manasan | On 03 Oct 2018

Bribes vs. Taxes: Market Structure and Incentives

Firms in developing countries often avoid paying taxes by making informal payments to tax officials. These bribes may raise the cost of operating a business, and the price charged to consumers. To dec...

by Francesco Amodio | On 17 Sep 2018

Impure Impact Giving: Theory and Evidence

The paper presents a new model of charitable giving where individuals regard out-of-pocket donations and the matches they induce as different. The paper shows that match-price elasticities combine con...

by Daniel M. Hungerman | On 01 Sep 2018

Enabling Smart Urban Redevelopment in India through Floor Area Ratio Incentives

This working paper assesses the potential of incentive FAR approaches in two Indian cities, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, for leveraging the economic value of urban land. A thorough analysis of Mumbai’s clust...

by Apoorva Shenvi | On 25 Jul 2018

Breathe India: An Action Plan for Combating Air Pollution

A recent WHO database (2018) has identified several of India’s top cities with some of the highest levels of air pollution. Kanpur, Faridabad, Gaya, Varanasi and Patna are the top five most polluted c...

by Niti Aayog GOI | On 16 Jul 2018

Assessment of the BUB Program: Improving Access of Local Communities to Basic Services and Strengthening Social Capital

The Aquino administration through the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster (HDPRC) and Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Cluster (GGACC) launched the Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB) exercise in...

by Rosario G. Manasan | On 05 Jul 2018

Designing the Fiscal Features of a Federal Form of Government: Autonomy, Accountability, and Equity Considerations

The paper provides estimates of the cost of shifting to a federal form of government under different scenarios in terms of the number of regions. Finally, it concludes with the discussion of why adopt...

by Rosario G. Manasan | On 03 Jul 2018

Cash Holdings and Tax Evaded Incomes in India – A Discussion

The paper makes an analysis of cash holdings in India and attempts to test its association with tax effort and government spending. The finding arrived is that the ratio of Cash holding to Nominal GDP...

by R. Mohan | On 21 Jun 2018

The Impact of Monetary and Tax Policy on Income Inequality in Japan

This paper assesses the effects of the most recent monetary policy behavior of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) (in particular, zero interest rate policy and negative interest rate policy) and Japanese tax pol...

by Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary | On 09 Jun 2018

The impact of macroeconomic policies on the growth of public health expenditure: An empirical assessment from the Indian states

The impact assessment of macroeconomic policies on public health expenditure is very relevant in Indian economy because of tax reform, fiscal consoli- dation, and expenditure policy reform. These h...

by | On 11 May 2018

Goods and Services Tax (GST)

India introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on 1 July 2017 after a decade of preparation. Ideally, GST should reduce tax driving the market by enabling businesses to invest, reflecting...

by Parthasarathi Shome | On 07 May 2018

Informality, Governance and Growth

This paper develops a growth framework of a typical developing and democratic setting with formal and informal sectors, which faces trade-off of redistribution through either direct subsidy or strat...

by Dibyendu Maiti | On 05 Apr 2018

The Underground Economy and Tax Evasion in Pakistan: A Fresh Assessment

Recently, not only economists but also sociologists, political leaders, policy-makers, non-governmental organizations, and the press are taking a lively interest in the size of the under ground econom...

by Zafar Iqbal | On 28 Mar 2018

Underground Economy and Tax Evasion in Pakistan: A Critical Evaluation

The paper says that the tax evasion refers to all the illegal actions taken to avoid the lawful assessment of taxes.

by M. Ali Kemal | On 21 Mar 2018

It’s all in the Stars: The Chinese Zodiac and the Effects of Parental Investments on Offspring’s Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Development

The importance of (early) parental investments in children’s cognitive and noncognitive outcomes is a question of deep policy significance. However, because parental investments are arguably endogeno...

by Chih Ming Tan | On 16 Mar 2018

Cash Holding and Tax Evaded Incomes in India – A Discussion

The paper makes an analysis of cash holdings in India and attempts to test its association with tax effort and government spending. The finding arrived is that the ratio of Cash holding to Nominal GDP...

by R. Mohan | On 14 Mar 2018

Budget 2018: Maharashtra Budget Speech Part 2

Mahrashtra Buget speech Part 2

by Sudhir Mungamtiwar | On 12 Mar 2018

Incentives Can Reduce Bias in Online Reviews

Online reviews are a powerful means of propagating the reputations of products, services, and even employers. However, existing research suggests that online reviews often suffer from selection bias—p...

by Ioana Marinescu | On 07 Mar 2018

The Multilateral Legal Instrument: A Developing Country Perspective

This paper makes an attempt to assess whether this instrument has succeeded in bringing about the desired changes. A unique database is constructed on the basis of these country positions. Using this...

by Suranjali Tandon | On 03 Mar 2018

State Level Fiscal Reforms in India: Some Core Issues

This paper has introduced instability in the budgets and has added to the burden of public debt.

by K.K. George | On 15 Feb 2018

In the Long Run We are Dead, says Keynes Amen, says the Government!

This is a dreamy and populist Budget talking high numbers while missing out on empirical realities. The irony is that, looked at closely, it has neither pleased the free market theorists nor has it do...

by K.R. Shyam Sundar | On 09 Feb 2018

Of Hits and Misses: An Analysis of Union Budget 2018-19

The report presents a comprehensive analysis of the budgetary provisions for important social sectors and the vulnerable sections of the population. It also presents an overview of the fiscal indicat...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability CBGA | On 05 Feb 2018

Kerala Budget 2018-19

Budget speech of Finance Minister of Kerala.

by T.M. Thomas Issac | On 05 Feb 2018

State of State Finances 2018

Several states such as Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka raise a majority of their revenue from their own taxes. On the other hand, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, and Bihar rai...

by Mandira Kala | On 01 Feb 2018

Economic Survey 2017: Volume II, Chapter 2: Review of Fiscal Developments

Sound public financial management has been one of the pillars of India’s macro-economic stability in the last three years. Based on this firm footing, the Government, in partnership with the States,...

by Arun Jaitley | On 31 Jan 2018

Economic Survey 2017: Volume I: Chapter 9: Ease of Doing Business’ Next Frontier: Timely Justice

The government’s efforts to make business and commerce easy have been widely acknowledged. The next frontier on the ease of doing business is addressing pendency, delays and backlogs in the appellat...

by Arun Jaitley | On 31 Jan 2018

Economic Survey 2017: Volume I, Chapter 4: Reconciling Fiscal Federalism and Accountability: Is there a Low Equilibrium Trap?

Long-run institutional development co-evolves with fiscal accountability involving, perhaps requiring, a low and declining dependence on devolved resources and a high and rising share of direct taxe...

by Arun Jaitley | On 31 Jan 2018

A New, Exciting Bird’s-Eye View of the Indian Economy Through the GST

Data on the international exports of states (the first in India’s history) suggests a strong correlation between export performance and states’ standard of living. India’s exports are unusual in tha...

by Arun Jaitley | On 30 Jan 2018

PIDS Calls For ‘Intelligent’ Discourse On Federalism

The study says that the policymakers should see merit in examining whether federalism can indeed address the sociopolitical and economic problems that hamper the country’s growth.

by PIDS Information Staff | On 11 Dec 2017

Global Investment Competitiveness Report 2017/2018 : Foreign Investor Perspectives and Policy Implications

This inaugural issue of the World Bank Group’s Global Investment Competitiveness Report presents novel analytical insights and empirical evidence on foreign direct investment’s (FDI) drivers and contr...

by World Bank [WB] | On 08 Dec 2017

Graduation Incentives Through Conditional Student Loan Forgiveness

The paper evaluates a Finish student financing reform which created substantial financial incentives for on-time graduation, and had the side effect of turning expected nominal interest rates on stude...

by Ulla Hämäläinen | On 01 Dec 2017

Pakistan’s Highly Taxed Telecom Market: Fall out and Impact

The study aims to create awareness among both the public and private sectors about the importance of exploiting useful information resources.

by Brig (Retd) Yasin | On 21 Nov 2017

Inequality, Good Governance and Endemic Corruption

Can a society suffering contests between rich and poor achieve good governance in the face of endemic corruption? The paper examines a stylized poor state with weak institutions in which a “culture of...

by Gil S. Epstein | On 21 Nov 2017

Understanding Judicial Delay at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in India

This paper creates a de novo data-set using publicly available data on cases at the Indian Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT). The paper applies the statistical techniques of hazard models to addres...

by Pratik Datta | On 17 Oct 2017

The Macroeconomic Benefits of Tax Enforcement in Pakistan

The benefits of improved tax enforcement in Pakistan through simulations of a model of the Pakistani economy is studied. We begin by documenting that the effective tax rate facing firms is increasin...

by Ethan Ilzetzki | On 04 Oct 2017

Elasticity and Buoyancy of Taxation in Nepal: A Revisit of the Empirical Evidence

In this paper, we use autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration developed by Pesaran et al. (1999) to estimate the elasticity and buoyancy coefficients of various revenue heads.

by Nepal Rastra Bank Research Department NRB | On 28 Sep 2017

Public Health Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights

The World Health Organization considered that its mission demanded it should play a part in this debate, with the objective of illuminating how intellectual property rights might affect public health...

by World Health Organisation (WHO) | On 14 Sep 2017

Evaluation of Fiscal Incentives in the Philippines

This paper (1) assesses how the Philippines fares in attracting investments compared with its neighboring countries, and (2) evaluates pending incentive reforms in the country.

by Danileen Kristel C Parel | On 04 Sep 2017

Assessment of the 2017 Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion

This paper aims to assess the implications of these bills on the distribution of tax burden across income groups, economic incentives in affected sectors, national government revenues, and likely impa...

by Rosario G. Manasan | On 01 Sep 2017

Manufacturing Centric Fiscal Policy

The report says that the manufacturing sector has significant fiscal policy implications.

by M. Singhi | On 24 Aug 2017

Building Synergies: Matching Business Reforms to Improved 'Ease of Doing Business'

The study explores ground-level realities linked with initiatives on tax administration, construction permits, transparency, compliance with environmental and labour laws and regulations, and inspecti...

by Research National Council of Applied Economic | On 31 Jul 2017

Financial Soundness Indicators for Financial Sector Stability in Viet Nam

The results of this study can be used to strengthen the institutional and statistical capacities of Viet Nam to routinely collect, compile, analyze, and disseminate internationally comparable FSIs tha...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 07 Jul 2017

Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Indonesia: Trends, Impacts, and Reforms

This study measures the size of fossil fuel subsidies such as underpricing of petroleum products and electricity, tax exemptions, and subsidized credit; examines the potential economic, energy, and en...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 04 Jul 2017

Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Thailand: Trends, Impacts, and Reforms

This study measures the size of fossil fuel subsidies such as tax breaks for diesel and natural gas, market price support for natural gas for vehicles, and free electricity for low-income consumers as...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 04 Jul 2017

GST in India: A Key Tax Reform

GST is one of the most crucial tax reforms in India which has been long pending. It was supposed to be implemented from April 2010, but due to political issues and conflicting interests of various s...

by Monika Sehrawat | On 03 Jul 2017

Ola and Uber failing to live up to the promises made

With mushrooming of commercial drivers, incomes are falling and expenses are rising. Unable to pay monthly loan instalments, cars are being seized, while contracted employees cannot quit. Will legal p...

by Amrit B L S | On 29 Jun 2017

Trade and Transport Facilitation Monitoring Mechanism: Baseline Study in Bangladesh

This report reviews trade and transport procedures in Bangladesh, highlights the importance of monitoring trade and transport facilitation, and lays a foundation for future studies and establishment o...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 12 Jun 2017

Incentives for Reducing Disaster Risk in Urban Areas

The rapid growth of urban areas has often resulted in the siting of poorly designed infrastructure and assets in hazard-prone areas, increasing disaster risk.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 05 Jun 2017

Myanmar Transport Sector Policy Note: How to Improve Road User Charges

This report presents a preliminary economic analysis of road user costs and fees, partly drawing from the World Bank’s Road User Charge (RUC) model and analysis framework, and a review of the tolling...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 01 Jun 2017

Envisioning Tax Policy for Accelerated Development in India

The objective of the paper is to highlight the reforms needed in the tax system to improve the revenue productivity of the tax system to conform to the vision of accelerating economic growth and dev...

by M. Govinda Rao | On 26 May 2017

Changing Tax Capacity and Tax Effort of Indian States in the Era of High Economic Growth, 2001-2014

Growing demand for public expenditures, limitations in expanding fiscal space and limited scope to deviate from common harmonized tax system under the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime may...

by Sacchidananda Mukherjee | On 25 May 2017

A Comparative Analysis of Tax Administration in Asia and the Pacific: 2016

The analysis and practical guidance provided in this report are based on surveys of revenue bodies conducted in 2014 and 2015, along with accompanying research of revenue bodies’ corporate documents,...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 22 May 2017

Uncovering Heterogeneity in the Relationship between Competition, Corporate Governance and Firm Performance using Quantile Regression on Indian Data

This paper investigates the relation between product market competition, corporate governance and firm performance in Indian manufacturing industries covering the period 2005-2015. Evidence suggests t...

by Indrani Chakraborty | On 19 May 2017

The Comply-or-Explain Approach for Enforcing Governance Norms Subrata Sarkar

In recent years the comply-or-explain approach for enforcing corporate governance norms has gained ground in regulatory parlance. The comply-or-explain approach has the advantage of tailoring govern...

by Subrata Sarkar | On 04 May 2017

Goods and Services Tax in India: An Opportunities and Challenges

Value added tax was first introduced by Maurice Laure, a French economist, in 1954. The tax was designed such that the burden is borne by the final consumer. Since VAT can be applied on goods as well...

by | On 13 Apr 2017

Impact of Goods and Service Tax (GST) on Indian Economy

GST also known as the Goods and Services Tax is defined as the giant indirect tax structure designed to support and enhance the economic growth of a country. More than 150 countries have implemented G...

by | On 13 Apr 2017

Budget 2017-18: Business as Usual

Budget 2017-18 was presented at the time when the global situation is inhospitable, marked with protectionism and domestic environment is constrained by the twin balance sheet crisis. The investment ...

by M Govinda Rao | On 10 Mar 2017

Haryana Budget : 2017-18

Haryana Budget presented by Hon'ble Minister Capt. Abhimanyu.

by Haryana Government | On 07 Mar 2017

Kerala Budget 2017-18

Kerala budget presented by Hon.Finance Minister Thomas Issac.

by T.M. Thomas Issac | On 06 Mar 2017

Assam Budget: 2017-18

The Finance Minister of Assam , MrHimanta Biswa Sarma presented the Budget for Assam for financial year 2017-18 on February 7, 2017.

by Government of Assam | On 09 Feb 2017

What Do the Numbers Tell? An Analysis of Union Budget 2017-18

Budget 2017-18 is placed at an important juncture when there has been a thrust by the government for a digitised and a consequent cashless economy with the demonetisation of high value currency note...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability CBGA | On 03 Feb 2017

‘GOING DARK’ in India: The Legal and Security Dimensions of Encryption

Encrypting communications enhances privacy and the security of information services. This, in turn, incentivises innovation in the ICT sector and contributes significantly to the growth of the interne...

by | On 02 Feb 2017

Latest Highlights of Union Budget Rally 2017

These are the latest union budget highlights. Gear up to enjoy subsidies, pay newer taxes and enjoy greater freedom, as that covers a major part of the Union Budget 2017.

by | On 01 Feb 2017

Economic Survey 2016-17

This year has been marked by several historic economic policy developments. On the domestic side, a constitutional amendment paved the way for the long-awaited and transformational goods and services...

by Arun Jaitley | On 31 Jan 2017

Budget in the Time of Demonetisation

Demonetisation is a weapon to stop the black money in the country. But cash is only a small portion of black money. Also the economy has been affected by this step. How will the government tackle this...

by Rakesh Mumbai | On 27 Jan 2017

Fertility, Mortality and Environmental Policy

This article examines pollution and environmental mortality in an economy where fertility is endogenous and output is produced from labor and capital by two sectors, dirty and clean. An emission tax c...

by | On 24 Jan 2017

Dealing with GST in the Union Budget 2017

Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a harmonized tax regime and it can curb black money through practicing clean "invoices" to redeem input credit. In the Union Budget 2017, central government may announc...

by Lekha Chakraborty | On 23 Jan 2017

Demonetization, the Cash Shortage and the Black Money

Demonetisation of INR 500 and INR 1,000 notes in India on November 8, 2016 is different from many other countries’ scrapping of high value notes in two respects – the withdrawal of their legal tende...

by Ashok K. Lahiri | On 02 Jan 2017

Plan vs. Performance Winter Session – November 16 to December 16, 2016

This note lists the legislative business planned by Parliament and compares it with the actual performance during Winter Session 2016.

by Kusum Malik | On 19 Dec 2016

Vital Stats: Parliament functioning in the Winter Session 2016

Winter Session 2016 has been one of the least productive sessions for both Houses in the last 15 years, with repeated disruptions on the issue of demonetisation of currency. While eight Bills were int...

by Kusum Malik | On 19 Dec 2016

E-governance, Accountability, and Leakage in Public Programs: Experimental Evidence from a Financial Management Reform in India

In collaboration with the Government of Bihar, India, a large-scale experiment is conducted to evaluate whether transparency in fiscal transfer systems can increase accountability and reduce corrupt...

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 02 Dec 2016

Demonetisation: Impact on the Economy

The argument posited in favour of demonetisation is that the cash that would be extinguished would be “black money” and hence, should be rightfully extinguished to set right the perverse incentive s...

by | On 17 Nov 2016

Report Summary: White Paper on Black Money

According to the Paper, black money is a serious issue because it has a ‘debilitating effect’ on governance and public policy and this affects the poor disproportionately. [PRS Report Summary].

by Vishnu Padmanabhan | On 17 Nov 2016

Parliament Session Alert Winter Session: November 16 – December 16, 2016

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will meet for the Winter Session between November 16 and December 16, 2016. There will be a total of 22 sittings. The agenda for legislation includes ten Bills for consider...

by Kusum Malik | On 14 Nov 2016

Cross-country Econometric Study on the Impact of Fiscal Incentives on FDI

The increasing level of competition for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the ‘90s triggered many countries to offer various fiscal incentives. Specifically, many Asian countries persistently keep...

by Ma. Laarni D. Revilla | On 11 Nov 2016

A Study on Widening of Tax Base and Tackling Black Money

Beyond the issue of unaccounted monies lying overseas, however, is the issue of unaccounted monies lying in India and what is perceived to be the parallel economy. There is, of course, this issue of w...

by FICCI Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Indu | On 09 Nov 2016

State of State Finances

Finances of states have been changing due to (i) increased devolution of central taxes, (ii) rationalisation of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, (iii) the introduction of the UDAY scheme, and (iv) the...

by Arvind Gayam | On 09 Nov 2016

A Stagnant Agriculture in Kerala: The Role of the State

The paper shows that disincentives generated by the successive governments in Kerala through imposing artificial barriers on the freedom of farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs resulted in the coll...

by Lekshmi R Nair | On 08 Nov 2016

Estimates of the Economic Contributions of the Bidi Manufacturing Industry in India

Bidis, the most common smoking tobacco product in India, remain largely untaxed and are subject to very few regulations to discourage their use. A major argument against tax increases is the large pot...

by | On 03 Nov 2016

Ease of Doing Business

When arriving at the ‘Doing Business’ rankings, the World Bank ranks 11 parameters that impact businesses across various stages of their lifecycle – at start-up, getting a location, getting financing,...

by | On 28 Oct 2016

Parental Resources and College Attendance: Evidence from Lottery Wins

This paper examines more than one million children whose parents won a state lottery to trace out the effect of additional household resources on college outcomes. The analysis draws on the universe o...

by George Bulman | On 28 Sep 2016

Quantitative Spatial Economics

The observed uneven distribution of economic activity across space is influenced by variation in exogenous geographical characteristics and endogenous interactions between agents in goods and factor m...

by Stephen Redding | On 20 Sep 2016

Revisiting the Tax Compliance Problem using Prospect Theory

The paper presents a model for tax compliance based on prospect theory wherein an individual makes the decision whether to file, and declare a certain amount of income, or to not file based on a set...

by R.Kavita Rao | On 17 Aug 2016

Vital Stats: Parliament during Monsoon Session 2016

The Monsoon Session of Parliament concluded on August 12, 2016. The session had 20 sittings, during which various Bills were passed, including a Constitutional Amendment Bill enabling the levy of a G...

by Kusum Malik | On 16 Aug 2016

GST in India: Chasing a Mirage or Reality?

India is moving towards introducing a Goods and Services Tax (GST). The GST would be a multistage comprehensive value added tax (VAT) encompassing both goods and services. Given the federal structur...

by Sacchidananda Mukherjee | On 09 Aug 2016

Goods and Services Tax in India Taking Stock and Setting Expectations

The spread of Value Added Tax (VAT) or Goods and Services Tax (GST) system of Indirect taxes across the globe is showing an increasing trend with more than 160 countries, including 33 of the 34 member...

by | On 05 Aug 2016

GST in India: A Big Leap in the Indirect Taxation System

The replacement of the Central excise duty of the government of India by Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT) and sales tax system of the State governments by the VAT marked a major mile stone in the refo...

by | On 05 Aug 2016

First Discussion Paper on Goods and Services Tax in India

If the Value Added Tax (VAT) is considered to be a major improvement over the pre-existing Central excise duty at the national level and the sales tax system at the State level, then the Goods and Ser...

by Government of India | On 05 Aug 2016

Fire-Sale Externalities

This paper characterizes the efficiency properties of competitive economies with financial constraints and fire sales. It shows that two distinct pecuniary externalities occur in such settings: distri...

by Eduardo Dávila | On 29 Jul 2016

Finders, Keepers?

Natural resource taxation and investment often exhibit cyclical behaviour, associated with shifts in political power. Why do finders get to keep more of their discoveries in some periods than others?...

by Niko Jaakkola | On 22 Jul 2016

Improving Taxation Environment: Attracting Foreign Direct Investment

This paper broadly deals with the concerns of the multinationals in the area of taxation environment. Section two of this paper deals with the genesis of the recent crisis in this area and issues invo...

by R Singh | On 07 Jul 2016

A Theory of Tax Evasion in Developing Countries

This paper argues that taxpayers use tax evasion to compensate for imperfect financial markets as well as government expenditure patterns that do not benefit them. This paper demonstrates that imperfe...

by Errol D'souza | On 07 Jul 2016

Feasibility of Incentive Based Environmental Instruments in State and Central Taxation Regimes

Taxation policies in India have historically not been environmentally oriented. A tax system is needed whic is environmentally more rational. It is argued in this study that India is currently going...

by D K Srivastava | On 01 Jul 2016

Evaluating Labour Market Policy

This pper reviews major approaches and findings on the evaluation of the impact of different labour market institutions but pays particular attention to active labour market policies that play an impo...

by Werner Eichhorst | On 15 Jun 2016

The GATS Atlas: Global Adult Tobacco Survey

The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) Atlas presents tobacco statistics from 22 countries in a visual formatting, using GATS data that cover nearly 60 percent of the world’s population. It describes...

by | On 31 May 2016

Earmarked Tobacco Taxes: Lessons Learnt from Nine Countries

This publication looks at the experience of nine countries that have an experience in earmarking tobacco tax revenues for health purposes. It describes the challenges, setbacks and achievements of tho...

by World Health Organisation (WHO) | On 31 May 2016

Search for Resources in a High Income State: A Study of State Finances of Sikkim

The paper examines the public financial management (PFM) of Sikkim focusing mainly on resources generation effort and budget management practices. We note that any deviation from the Central transfers...

by Pratap R Jena | On 23 May 2016

Sustainable Consolidation: Suggesting the Way Ahead for Kerala

The paper examines the fiscal scene of Kerala, during the last one and a half decades, by looking at the trends in receipts and expenditure. It finds that a revenue led fiscal consolidation is the w...

by T.M. Thomas Issac | On 20 May 2016

Does Carbon Tax Makes Sense? Assessing Global Scenario and Addressing Indian Perspective

This paper presents a plan that provides an achievable path toward a global policy on Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. At the heart of it is a small carbon tax (actually a GHG tax). The proceeds of...

by Mohana Mondal | On 09 May 2016

Economic Incentives for the Conservation of Bharathapuzha River: Focus on Sand Mining

Rivers in Kerala are assailed by pollution, sedimentation, sand mining, and constriction of flows. The indiscriminate and unscientific sand mining, even in the midst of many regulatory and protective...

by Lakshmi Sreedhar | On 04 May 2016

Incentives and Outcomes: China's Environmetal Policy

Using 2000-2009 data, the report finds that, while spending on environmental infrastructure has visible positive environmental impact, city spending is strongly tilted towards transportation infrastru...

by | On 04 May 2016

Size Dependent Tax incentives, Threshold Effects and Horizontal Subcontracting in Indian Manufacturing: Evidence from Factory and Firm-level Panel Data Sets

ndia's industrial protection and promotion policies for small-scale enterprises have figured prominently in the literature on industrialization policies in developing countries. These size dependent t...

by K.V. Ramaswamy | On 02 May 2016

Taxes: Price of Civilization or Tribute to Leviathan?

The report considers the question of taxes as price versus tribute for contemporary India and makes three points. First, if the accounting cost of services provided exceeds the economic cost (the min...

by | On 15 Apr 2016

State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2015-16

Empirical findings across a swathe of countries, advanced and emerging, confirm that the composition of government expenditure can have perceptible growth implications.

by Reserve Bank of India RBI | On 12 Apr 2016

Budget Speech Meghalaya: 2016-17

Speech by Donkupar Roy, Finance Minister of Meghalaya.

by Donkupar Roy | On 31 Mar 2016

Budget Speech Delhi: 2016-17

Budget speech by Finance Minister Manish Sisodia.

by Manish Sisodia | On 29 Mar 2016

Budget 2016-17 & The Indian Economy

A brief summary by Niti Aayog about the pre and post 2016-17 Indian Budget Analysis.

by Arvind Panagariya | On 28 Mar 2016

Labor Supply Models: Unobserved Heterogeneity, Nonparticipation and Dynamics

This chapter is concerned with the identification and estimation of models of labor supply. The focus is on the key issues that arise from unobserved heterogeneity, nonparticipation and dynamics. We e...

by Richard Blundell | On 21 Mar 2016

Budget Speech Maharashtra: 2016-17-Part II

Budget speech

by Sudhir Mungantiwar | On 18 Mar 2016

Money Matters Local Government Finance in the People's Republic of China

Public finance systems in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have evolved substantially over the last three decades. The evolution is continuing, with wide-ranging reforms in budget and debt managem...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 18 Mar 2016

Budget Speech Gujarat: 2016-17

Budget speech of finance minister of Gujarat, Saurabh Patel.

by Saurabh Patel | On 16 Mar 2016

Japan: Tax Matters

On Monday September 10 the leader of the party likely to win Japan’s next general election, LDP’s SadakazuTanigaki, threw in the towel in a surprise move. He had repeatedly expressed his intention to...

by | On 14 Mar 2016

Dependence of States on Central Transfers: Aggregate and State-wise Analysis

This paper examines the dependence of states on central fiscal transfers. It particularly focuses on the role of transfers through tax devolution under the recommendation of the Finance Commissions. T...

by D K Srivastava | On 13 Mar 2016

Designing Contracts for the Global Fund: Lessons from the Theory of Incentives

This paper uses contract theory to suggest simple contract designs that could be used by the Global Fund. Using a basic model of procurement, we lay out five alternative options and consider when each...

by Liam Wren-Lewis | On 10 Mar 2016

Climate Change Economics: A Review on Theoretical Understanding and Controversies

The neo-classical economics literature incorporated the notion of environment during the mid 20th century, but climate change has found its place in the economics discourse during the early 1980s. Dur...

by Unmesh Patnaik | On 09 Mar 2016

Fiscal Austerity and Public Investment: Is the Possible the Enemy of the Necessary?

In most rich democracies one finds a tendency for the share in public finance that is available for discretionary spending to shrink. This is because tax revenues do not keep pace with simultaneous in...

by | On 08 Mar 2016

Economic Nationalism, Network-based Coordination, and the Market for Corporate Control Motives for Political Resistance to Foreign Takeovers

Why does political resistance to foreign takeovers vary across countries and over time? Rational choice accounts of economic nationalism fail to provide an answer. The present article proposes an inst...

by | On 08 Mar 2016

The Politics of Public Debt: Neoliberalism, Capitalist Development, and the Restructuring of the State

Rising public debt has been widespread in democratic-capitalist political economies since the 1970s, generally accompanied among other things by weak economic growth, rising unemployment, increasing i...

by | On 08 Mar 2016

Middle Class is among the Better Off, They Need to Pay More

When the state is unable to provide adequately for the bottom half of the population, should it be giving tax benefits to the well-off?

by T.N. Ninan | On 05 Mar 2016

Design of Economic Instruments and Participatory Institutions for Environmental Management in India

This paper examines the possibilities of using economic instruments, especially pollution taxes and bargaining approaches resulting in people’s participation for environmental management in India. It...

by M.N. Murty | On 02 Mar 2016

Effective Carbon Taxes and Public Policy Options: Insights from India and Pakistan

In this paper, we take as given the need for public action on climate change (see Stern, 2007), and that carbon taxation is one of the key instruments for influencing both behaviour of consumers and p...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 01 Mar 2016

Madhya Pradesh Budget Analysis 2016-17

The Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister, Mr. Jayant Mallayya, presented the Budget for Madhya Pradesh for the financial year 2016-17 on February 26, 2016.

by Arvind Gayam | On 01 Mar 2016

The Political-economy of Tax Reforms in Pakistan: The Ongoing Saga of the GST

Should tax reforms be guided by rules of thumb suggested by the IMF, or directions or reform based on analytical approaches, such as optimal tax theory? In many cases, the applications of the directio...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 01 Mar 2016

Political Economy of Natural Resource Revenue Sharing in Indonesia

In this paper, we examine the asymmetric approaches to sharing natural resource revenues in Indonesia. We examine in Section 2, some of the potential theoretical arguments underlying...

by Cut Agustina | On 01 Mar 2016

Vital Stats: Union Budget 2016-17

Trends regarding the central government’s sources of financing including tax revenue, disinvestments, and its revenue and capital expenditure, including subsidies. Estimates are presented in the 2016-...

by Mandira Kala | On 01 Mar 2016

Financing Social Policy in the Presence of Informality

We present a framework for the analysis of tax and benefit policy in countries with significant informality. Our framework allows us to jointly analyse the e!ects of various taxes and benefits on ince...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 01 Mar 2016

Should China Revisit the 1994 Fiscal Reforms?

The 1994 Fiscal Reforms in China were spectacularly successful in meeting the immediate challenges that the economy faced at that time—a sharply dropping tax/GDP ratio, and limited ability of the cent...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 01 Mar 2016

Tax Reforms in the Presence of Informality in Developing Countries: Incentives to Cheat in Mexico

In this paper we examine incentives to cheat in the Mexican tax system and argue that these are affected by interactions between taxes. We use variation in tax status between Mexican firms and variati...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 29 Feb 2016

Can the New Intergovernmental Structure Work in Pakistan in the Presence of Governance Challenges? Learning from China

The reform of the tax administration has been recognized as a priority since the early 1980s and the report of the Tax Reforms Commission headed by Qamar-ul Islam, which had called the then Central Bo...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 29 Feb 2016

Local Property Taxation and Benefits in Developing Countries - Overcoming political resistance?

While property taxation has existed since ancient times, and the taxation of land has been a mainstay of public finances through the Middle Ages, in both Europe and Asia, it has all but ceased to be a...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 26 Feb 2016

Land Reform and Changes in Land Ownership Concentration: Evidence from Rice-Growing Villages

This paper examines the effect of land reform and land transfer actions of farmer beneficiaries on land ownership concentration. A case study of two rice-growing villages was used to track down owners...

by Marife M. Ballesteros | On 25 Feb 2016

Comparative Assessment of Proposals to Amend the Personal Income Tax Law

Proposals to reform the personal income tax has gained prominence in recent months. To date, personal income tax reform is part and parcel of the platform of a number of the candidates in the 2016 pre...

by Rosario G. Manasan | On 25 Feb 2016

The Puzzle of Small Farming in Japan

Japan’s small farming represents a puzzle. Currently nearly three-quarters of farmland is operated by farmers whose farm size is well under optimal size. Being too small is the main reason for the hig...

by Yoshihisa Godo | On 24 Feb 2016

A Comparative Study Of Mergers And Acquisitions By Privately- And State-Owned Enterprises

Governments have become much more welcoming towards foreign investors over the past several decades. The widespread use of screening, performance requirements, and outright restrictions on foreign own...

by Michael Gestrin | On 19 Feb 2016

Labor Supply Responses to the 1990s Japanese Tax Reforms

The consumption-leisure choice model implies that an exogenous change in tax rates will induce a change in labor supply. This implication is expected to be important to labor supplied by secondary ear...

by Ken Yamada | On 19 Feb 2016

The Goods & Services Tax Debate in India: Concepts and Issues

The chequered but ongoing political efforts to introduce a uniform Goods & Services Tax (GST) throughout India should actually be seen through a larger economic prism. The current sense of urgency, re...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Demographic Dividend or Demographic Threat in Pakistan

This paper looks into the demographic dividend available to Pakistan and its implications for the country, mainly through three mechanisms: labour supply, savings, and human capital. For economic bene...

by Durr-e- Nayab | On 17 Feb 2016

A Fresh Assessment of the Underground Economy and Tax Evasion in Pakistan: Causes, Consequences, and Linkages with the Formal Economy

Rise in the underground economy creates problems for the policy-makers to formulate economic policies, especially the monetary and fiscal policies. It is found that if there was no tax evasion, budget...

by M. Ali Kemal | On 17 Feb 2016

State and Region Public Finances in Myanmar

This paper focuses on understanding the role of state and region governments in relation to Myanmar's public finances. This has been done to take stock of existing research, better understand the comp...

by The Asia Foundation | On 16 Feb 2016

Impact of Export Subsidies on Pakistan’s Exports

Throughout Pakistan’s history, policy has sought to promote exports through government support and incentives. The government machinery is geared to export promotion especially through direct and indi...

by Nadeem Ul Haque | On 16 Feb 2016

Tax Expenditures in Bangladesh: An Introductory Analysis

This policy note attempts to introduce the concept and size of tax expenditures in the context of Bangladesh with special references to experiences of India and Pakistan. It shows that the amount of t...

by M. Golam Mortaza | On 15 Feb 2016

Monetary Policy and Capital Market Development in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Bank (BB) adjusted its monetary policy stance during 2005 in order to contain inflationary pressures and facilitate stability in the foreign exchange market. At the end of 2005, interest ra...

by Shubhasish Barua | On 15 Feb 2016

Public Policies For Facilitating Medical Tourism Industry In Asia

The paper attempts to analyze the role of public policy adjustments in facilitating the medical tourism sector in Asian countries in response to recent global economic events. While falling incomes ma...

by Vinay Singh | On 13 Feb 2016

The Government Budget : A Critical Appraisal with Reference to Transparency and Accountability

Budget is the major economic policy document of the government for a particular year and perhaps beyond. Therefore, it is imperative to study the processes, institutional mechanisms, and decision-maki...

by Muttukrishna Sarvananthan | On 13 Feb 2016

Working to Improve Price Indices Development in Pakistan

Given the importance of Consumer Price Index (CPI), there has been long debate on its measurement issues. It is the best and most well-known indicator of inflation, which is further used for evaluatin...

by Mahmood Khalid | On 06 Feb 2016

Tax Systems: A Channel for Corruption – Or A Way To Fight It?

Fighting tax evasion, corruption and opaque money flows should be seen as advancing the same end point: more equitable and better governed countries. When a tax system works right, it can create an ef...

by Transparency International | On 04 Feb 2016

Financial Incentives to Industry

This paper provides details of the decisions made by the Environment Standards Committee (ESC) on Financial Incentives to industry. It also documents the progress made so far in the implementation of...

by Abdul Khan | On 02 Feb 2016

Disciplining Investment Incentives: A Lost Cause?

Investment incentives rank among the most important policy instruments governments employ to influence the locational decisions of multinational firms. In the wake of the recent increase in locational...

by International Centre for Sustainable Trade and Development | On 02 Feb 2016

Property Tax Experiment in Punjab, Pakistan

Pakistan faces important policy challenges in improving service delivery and growth and development. Low levels of tax revenue act as a serious constraint to economic growth, provision of services and...

by Benjamin Olken | On 02 Feb 2016

Social Insurance with Competitive Insurance Markets and Risk Misperception

This paper considers an economy where individuals differ in productivity and in risk. Rochet (1991) has shown that when private insurance markets offer full coverage at fair rates, social insurance is...

by | On 02 Feb 2016

The Potential of Financial Transaction Taxes for Development Financing

Difficulties in raising sufficient resources to finance internationally agreed development goals and global objectives, such as combating climate change, have led the quest for new and innovative sour...

by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | On 31 Jan 2016

Deploying Climate-Related Technologies in the Transport Sector: Exploring Trade Links

This paper focuses on liberalizing environmental goods (EGs) in the transport sector. The reduction or removal of trade restrictions affecting transport-related EGs supports the deployment of cl...

by | On 30 Jan 2016

Improving Tax Compliance in Bangladesh: A Study of Value-Added Tax (VAT)

In recent years, tax compliance has come to the centre of both academic and policy discourse for several reasons. In the first place, tax-GDP ratio in Bangladesh is very low (10.6%) when compared with...

by Nasiruddin Ahmed | On 30 Jan 2016

Renewable Energy and Process and Production Methods

In the debate on climate change, methods of producing products and energy are of paramount importance. While the product or the form of energy resulting may be the same, diverging production processes...

by | On 28 Jan 2016

Does War Empower Women? Evidence from Timor Leste

Conflicts may change the material conditions and the incentives individuals face through death, displacement and other consequences of violence. Being a victim of a war can also profoundly change indi...

by | On 26 Jan 2016

Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Bangladesh’s Balance of Payments: Some Policy Implications

This study reports high positive correlation between FDI inflows and Bangladesh’s aggregate exports and imports. The net impact on the current account balance and the balance of payments is positive....

by Muhammad Amir Hossain | On 23 Jan 2016

Prospects and Challenges of Bond Market Development in Bangladesh

The thin bond market in Bangladesh faces manifold challenges emanating from several sources including excessive reliance on bank credit, government debt instruments dominated by primary auction based...

by Md. Akhtaruzzaman | On 23 Jan 2016

Navigating the Global Financial Storm: Challenges for Bangladesh

The present global financial crisis shows that there is no substitute of prudent government intervention and careful regulation even when market determined incentive structures operate. The pursuit of...

by Bangladesh Bank | On 23 Jan 2016

The European Union's Proposed Carbon Equalisation System: Some Implications for India's Exports

In 2009, the European Union (EU) proposed to use border carbon measures, which could take the form of a direct or indirect “carbon tax”, against imports from its partner countries that were not follow...

by Biswajit Dhar | On 21 Jan 2016

Carbon Tax Brief

This brief outlines the context, current proposals and concerns around the proposed carbon tax and summarises the recommendations of the Davis Tax Committee on the carbon tax, which were released as p...

by Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies TIPS | On 19 Jan 2016

Globalization, Brain Drain and Development

This paper reviews four decades of economics research on the brain drain, with a focus on recent contributions and on development issues. We first assess the magnitude, intensity and determinants of t...

by Frédéric Docquier | On 14 Jan 2016

Redistributive Policies for Sustainable Development: Looking at the Role of Assets and Equity

Analyses of redistributive policies often focus on income flows to examine the nexus between redistribution and economic growth. With strengthening signs of growing economic inequality in many countri...

by | On 11 Jan 2016

The Single Best Health Policy in the World: Tobacco Taxes

The single most cost-effective way to save lives in developing countries is in the hands of developing countries themselves: raising tobacco taxes.

by | On 06 Jan 2016

Illegal Immigration and the Shadow Economy

We build a general equilibrium model in which both illegal immigration and the size of the informal sector are endogenously determined. In this framework, we show that indirect policy measures such as...

by Carmen Camacho | On 29 Dec 2015

Do Labour Market Institutions Matter in Transition Economies? An Analysis of Labour Market Flexibility in the Late Nineties

The objectives of this paper are to develop initiatives on how to measure the flexibility of the labour markets of transition countries and shed some light on the ongoing debate on the role of labour...

by | On 29 Dec 2015

Gender Sensitive Police Reform in Post Conflict Societies

This briefing paper reviews UNIFEM and UNDP experiences in building the capacity of police services to respond to women's security needs. The paper distinguishes between internal reforms to facilitate...

by UN Women | On 29 Dec 2015

People’s Monitoring of the RTI Regime in India (2011-13)

Right to Information Assessment and Advocacy Group (RaaG) came into existence, in 2008 when a group of RTI activists, researchers and academics got together to create a group dedicated to the ongoing...

by | On 23 Dec 2015

Fiscal Decentralization And Tax Incentives In The Developing world

Many developing countries use tax incentives to attract foreign direct investment, sacrificing immediate revenue from foreign capital, even though the effects of tax incentives on investment, growth,...

by Quan Li | On 23 Dec 2015

Benchmarking Inclusive Growth and Development

Rising income inequality is often the cause of social and political unrest and is damaging to our future economic well-being. Yet while it is clear that economic growth must also deliver improvements...

by Margareta Drzeniek | On 21 Dec 2015

Tracing Human Rights In Health

This paper is an endeavor to situate the evolution of Right to Health in a historical context. The various highlights of the paper are :i) Evolution of public health. ii) Evolution of human rights.ii...

by | On 21 Dec 2015

Doing Business Differently with Subnationals: Recommendations for Global Health Donors in Highly Decentralized Countries

This note builds on lessons learned from the Center for Global Development’s work on intergovernmental fiscal transfers for health and lays out three strategies for donors that fund organizations and...

by Amanda Glassman | On 21 Dec 2015

Teacher Incentives: Evidence from Schools in Delhi

The paper reports on existing incentive structures in a sample of government and private schools in Delhi and elicits teachers’ perspectives on factors which motivate them. It is found that performanc...

by | On 21 Dec 2015

Why Minimum Wage Increases Are a Poor Way to Help the Working Poor

Minimum wage increases are not a very effective mechanism for reducing poverty. They are not related to decreases in poverty rates. They can cost some low-income workers their jobs. And most minimum w...

by Richard Burkhauser | On 16 Dec 2015

Will Changes to the international Tax System Benefit Low- income Countries?

In recent months tax has climbed up the political agenda in ways that would have been unthinkable only a couple of years ago. Creating a fairer international tax system was a central ambition of both...

by Mick Moore | On 16 Dec 2015

Tax Revenue Mobilistation In Developing Countries: Issues and Challenges

In recent years, domestic revenue mobilisation in developing countries gained increasing prominence in the policy debate. Several factors explain this, including the potential benefits of taxation for...

by Mick Moore | On 16 Dec 2015

Building Tax Capacity in Developing Countries

The agenda for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development suggests there will be less focus on aid, and more on how developing countries can generate their own financial resources...

by Mick Moore | On 16 Dec 2015

Parliament Session Alert-Winter Session Alert: November 26 – December 23, 201 5

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will meet for the Winter Session between November 26th and December 23rd, 2015. The legislative agenda includes 19 Bills currently pending in Parliament for consideration an...

by Kusum Malik | On 25 Nov 2015

The Tax Puzzle

If the surge in tax collections is sustainable, the finance minister has the elbow room to shoot for a fiscal deficit that is significantly lower than the Budget's 3.9 per cent of GDP, or to bump up.

by T.N. Ninan | On 13 Nov 2015

Now Focus on the Economy

What the government should is to concentrate on economic issues with diversionary issues being put back in the cupboard.

by T.N. Ninan | On 07 Nov 2015

Corporate Social Responsibility in India - An Effort to Bridge the Welfare Gap

This paper analyses the potential implications of mandated CSR under the recently enacted Companies Act, 2013 in India on firm incentives, likely responses of corporates that come under the ambit of t...

by Jayati Sarkar | On 19 Oct 2015

Inequality: Trends, Harms and New Agendas

The paper focuses on within-country inequalities. It discusses in particular how the consequences of inequality are shaped by specific mechanisms that operate at the national, community and individual...

by | On 13 Oct 2015

Surviving in Bihar

Can election change the condition of Bihar? At least improving the transport facilities....

by T.N. Ninan | On 26 Sep 2015

Present State of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Reform in India

There are several challenges before introduction of GST and these can be classified into two broad heads – a) GST Design and Structure related, and b) GST Administration and Institutional. On design r...

by Sacchidananda Mukherjee | On 24 Sep 2015

Building Tax Capacity in Developing Countries

The agenda for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development suggests there will be less focus on aid, and more on how developing countries can generate their own financial resources...

by | On 22 Sep 2015

Civil Society Briefs: Sri Lanka

This brief provides an overview of civil society in Sri Lanka. With a view to strengthening ADB cooperation with civil society organizations, the NGO and Civil Society Center periodically prepares rep...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 07 Sep 2015

Long-Run Trends in the Distribution of Income and Wealth

This paper reviews the long run developments in the distribution of personal income and wealth. It also discusses suggested explanations for the observed patterns. It tries to answer questions such as...

by | On 30 Jul 2015

Globalizing Inequality: ‘Centrifugal’ and ‘Centripetal’ Forces at Work

Th is paper reassesses national income inequalities in this era of globalization. Th e main conclusion is that two opposite forces are at work: one ‘centrifugal’ at the two extremes of the distributio...

by | On 30 Jul 2015

A Financial Slave State

Greece is in huge financial trouble. Greece is paying the price for past follies like fictitious national accounts, unsustainable pension programmes, non-existent tax revenues and (the biggest mistake...

by T.N. Ninan | On 04 Jul 2015

Comprehensive Review of the Land Act of Bhutan, 2007 for Revision

The need for revision of the 1979 land legislation was being felt for a long time and hence the then Ministry of Agriculture started the work on it with the formation of a multi-sector committee in 20...

by Dasho Kinzang Dorji | On 26 Jun 2015

Minimising Selection Failure and Measuring Tax Gap: An Empirical Model

This paper presents an empirical model for minimising selection failure by tax departments in selecting cases for scrutiny assessment. This model also provides a new methodology for estimating tax gap...

by Sudhanshu Kumar | On 23 Jun 2015

The Constitution (One Hundred and Fifteenth Amendment) Bill, 2011

This Bill is further amendment to the constitution on levy and collection of goods and service tax and trade in India. It provides the parliament with exclusive powers to make laws with respect to goo...

by Ministry of Finance | On 19 May 2015

GST Reforms and Intergovernmental Considerations in India

This paper reviews the replacement of the state sales taxes by the Value Added Tax in 2005 marked a significant step forward in the reform of domestic trade taxes in India. Implemented under the leade...

by | On 19 May 2015

State Effectiveness, Growth, and Development

This paper discusses recent developments in the literature on state effectiveness. Each section covers the relevant theory with a special focus on the current knowledge about the mechanisms highlighte...

by | On 01 Apr 2015

Outcome Budget 2015-2016

The “Outcome Budget” reflects the endeavour of the Government to convert “Outlays” into “Outcomes” by planning expenditure, fixing appropriate targets and quantifying deliverables of each scheme. The...

by Ministry of Finance | On 26 Mar 2015

Walk the talk on carbon tax, Mr Finance Minister

Budget 2015, presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has a first. In it, India has accepted that it has a de-facto carbon tax—on petroleum products and dirty coal. Arguably, the only big green ini...

by Sunita Narain | On 25 Mar 2015

Budget Speech of Maharashtra Part II

Speech by Finance Minister of Maharashtra.

by Sudhir Mungamtiwar | On 23 Mar 2015

Finance Commission of India’s Assessments: A Political Economy Contention between Expectations and Outcomes

The objective of this study is to examine the structural basis on which Finance Commissions make their awards rather than examining the predictability of the forecasts. The story of Finance Commission...

by | On 12 Mar 2015

Of Bold Strokes and Fine Prints - An Analysis of Union Budget 2015-16

This publication highlights a range of pertinent issues primarily focusing on social sectors (such as education, health, drinking water and sanitation, food security etc.) and the responsiveness of th...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability | On 02 Mar 2015

Economic Survey 2014-15: Volume I

A flagship annual document of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Economic Survey 2014–15 reviews the developments in the Indian economy over the previous 12 months, summarizes the performan...

by Ministry of Finance | On 28 Feb 2015

Budget Speech 2015-16

Budget speech of Finance Minister

by Arun Jaitley | On 28 Feb 2015

Report of the Fourteenth Finance Commission

The Fourteenth Finance Commission (FC-XIV) was constituted by the President under Article 280 of the Constitution on 2 January 2013 to make recommendations for the period 2015- 20. Dr. Y. V. Reddy w...

by Finance Commission | On 24 Feb 2015

Policy Framework for Finance SEZs

India is a large user of financial services, by virtue of a large and growing GDP and a high rate of investment and savings. At present, India is con- suming financial services produced onshore as wel...

by Ministry of Finance | On 19 Feb 2015

Parliament’s Role in Financial Oversight

This note presents an analysis of Parliament’s role of financial oversight and examines how to strengthen it. It highlights gaps and solutions to improve the existing structures affecting budgetary an...

by Apoorva Shankar | On 30 Jan 2015

Redistributive Policies for Sustainable Development: Looking at the Role of Assets and Equity

The paper distinguishes between the stock of income generating assets such as human capital and wealth and deriving income flows in order to clarify the differences between growth-equity trade off deb...

by Pierre Kohler | On 28 Jan 2015

Designing Policies in the Presence of Hawala Markets

The paper explores the impact of the existence of such a mechanism on the effectiveness of various policy instruments in influencing outcomes on the official foreign exchange markets and GDP. The pape...

by R.Kavita Rao | On 13 Jan 2015

ICT policy 2014 - Information & Communication Technology Policy

The Government of Odisha has striven to make Odisha the preferred IT destination for IT / ITES / ESDM companies by providing a congenial business environment, an investor friendly policy framework wit...

by Government of Odisha | On 09 Sep 2014

Horizontal Devolution of States in India-Suggestions Before the Fourteenth Finance Commission

The focus of the paper is to suggest an alternate methodology for horizontal devolution from divisible pool of Central taxes and disbursement of grants. Tax devolution criteria suggested are populat...

by R. Mohan | On 16 Jul 2014

Budget Speech 2014-15

Budget Speech 2014-15 by Arun Jaitley.

by Arun Jaitley | On 10 Jul 2014

Quality Healthcare and Health Insurance Retention: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in the Kolkata Slums

Healthcare in developing countries is often unreliable and of poor quality, thus reducing individuals incentives to use quality health services. This paper examines an innovative approach to access to...

by Clara Delavallade | On 12 Jun 2014

Monetary Incentives to Reduce Open-Field Rice-Straw Burning in the Plains of Nepal

In southern Nepal, rice straw burning in open fields is common practice. This is problematic because biomass burning contributes to smoke, black carbon and greenhouse gases. While some studies have ex...

by Krishna Prasad Pant | On 02 Jun 2014

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Finance: Improving Access to Finance for Women-owned Businesses in India

This report aims to assess the gap in demand and supply of finance, highlight the opportunity in serving women entrepreneurs, and catalogue initiatives taken by financial institutions in access to f...

by International Finance Corporation | On 13 Mar 2014

Productivity Response to a Contract Change

This paper studies the productivity impact of a contract change. The setting is a tea plantation in India. The activity in question is tea-plucking, the output from which is measurable and contractib...

by Rajshri Jayaraman | On 24 Jan 2014

Monsoon 2013: Estimating the Impact on Agriculture

This paper attempts to project the likely impact of robust monsoon rains of 2013 on the Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in India. The model hypothesizes that the performance of agricu...

by Ashok Gulati | On 17 Dec 2013

The Nature of the Beast: What Behavioral Economics is Not

There are many misconceptions on what behavioral economics is. This is essay clearly says what is behavioral economics. [CGD essay].

by Matthew Darling | On 11 Dec 2013

Incentive Effects of Capital Gains and Inheritance Taxes on Interstate Migration: The Holt and Shelton Analysis Revisited

The present study attempts to analyse the effect of capital gains and inheritance taxes on individual decisions to migrate. [NIPFP WP no. 81].

by Martin David | On 11 Oct 2013

A Study on Fiscal Space

In the study states’ finances is analysed to see whether all states have been able to create a fiscal space and whether their fiscal capacities have increased over time. Then the states’ spending is l...

by Kim Robin | On 23 Sep 2013

Analysis of the President's Budget for 2013

This paper evaluates the President’s Budget (PB) or the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2013. The assessment is composed of four parts: (i) an evaluation of the overall fiscal picture as proj...

by Rosario G. Manasan | On 25 Jul 2013

Federal Budget in Brief 2013-14: Pakistan

Budget brief Pakistan 2013-14. [Government of Pakistan]. URL:[http://www.finance.gov.pk/budget/Budget_in_Brief_2013_14.pdf].

by Minister of Finance Pakistan | On 14 Jun 2013

Budget Analysis: Kerala Budget 2013-14

The Minister of Finance, K.M Mani , presented the General Budget 2013 to the State Assembly on March 15, 2013. In his address, he commented on the fiscal performance of the State in 2012-13 and laid...

by Vishnu Padmanabhan | On 09 Apr 2013

Report of China’s Local and Central Budgets 2013

Following is the full text of report on the implementation of central and local budgets in 2012 and on draft central and local budgets for 2013, which was submitted for review on March 5, 2013 at the...

by Ministry of Finance China | On 21 Mar 2013

Focus on Rural India

The budget has come with schemes for rural India. It has got schemes for women, youth and poor.

by Sunil Duggal | On 28 Feb 2013

Nine years later…

Is the Finance Minister going to do a salvage operation? [BS week end ruminations].

by T.N. Ninan | On 27 Feb 2013

Property Tax System in India: Problems and Prospects of Reform

This paper analyses the property tax system in India, examines the reasons for its low revenue productivity, reviews the recent reform initiatives and identifies further reform areas. [NIPFP Working P...

by M. Govinda Rao | On 06 Feb 2013

Economic Policies and Agricultural Incentives: The Philippine Case

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of economic policies on Philippine agricultural incentives from 1960 up to 1992. Apart from economic policies affecting price incentives, cover publi...

by Cristina C. David | On 24 Jan 2013

The Buoyant Billions: How “Middle Class” Are the New Middle Classes in Developing Countries? (And Why Does It Matter?)

Middle-income countries (MICs) are now home to most of the world’s extreme poor—the billion people living on less than $1.25 a day and a further billion people living on between $1.25 and $2. At the s...

by Andy Sumner | On 05 Nov 2012

Diesel Pricing in India: Entangled in Policy Maze

This paper identifies the important economic activities that use diesel and discusses the contribution of those sectors in GDP. Other important petroleum products and, their limited substitution possi...

by Mukesh Kumar Anand | On 17 Oct 2012

What Do Teachers Do? Teacher Quality Vis-a-vis Teacher Quantity in a Model of Public Education and Growth

This paper analyses the contribution of teachers in a public education system and its implication for growth. Focus is given exclusively on two teacher-specfi?c inputs (teacher quality and teacher q...

by Mausumi Das | On 21 Sep 2012

Recent Developments in Kerala State Finances

This paper covers recent trends in a series of broad indicators of the financial health of the Government of Kerala with its developmental policy as the backdrop. It examines fiscal balances in Kerala...

by Tapas K. Sen | On 30 Aug 2012

Japan’s Post-Triple-Disaster Growth Strategy

This paper discusses the scope of the many challenges and sets out a long-term strategy for overcoming them and putting the Japanese economy on a stable growth path. [Working Paper No. 376]. URL:[http...

by Masahiro Kawai | On 24 Aug 2012

Coordinating Healthcare and Pension Policies: An Exploratory Study

Rapid ageing of the population globally represents an unprecedented historical trend. As pension and healthcare costs are positively correlated with rising incomes, ageing, urbanization, and a shift f...

by Azad Singh Bali | On 20 Aug 2012

The Quality of Governance How Have Indian States Performed?

What is ‘good’ governance? Can the quality of governance be measured? And how do state governments in India measure up by such a measure? [Working Paper no. 104]. URL:[http://www.nipfp.org.in/neww...

by Sudipto Mundle | On 02 Aug 2012

Vital Stats: Pricing of Petroleum Products

Government owned Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) raised the price of petrol on 23rd May 2012. After the inclusion of local taxes, this amounted to a hike of Rs 7.54 per litre in Delhi. A snapshot of t...

by Karan Malik | On 24 Jul 2012

Raining problems

Recent history tells us that the growth rate of the economy does not automatically go up and down with good and bad monsoons. [BS Weekend Ruminations]. URL:[http://www.business-standard.com/india/news...

by T.N. Ninan | On 18 Jul 2012

Small Farmers in India: Challenges and Opportunities

This paper examines the roles and challenges of small holding agriculture in India. It covers trends in agricultural growth, cultivation patterns, participation of small holding agriculture, productiv...

by S. Mahendra Dev | On 06 Jul 2012

The Effects of Democratization on Public Goods and Redistribution: Evidence from China

This study investigates the effects of introducing elections on public goods and redistribution in rural China. A large and unique survey was collected to document the history of political reforms and...

by Yang Yao | On 05 Jun 2012

Philippine Productivity Dynamics in the Last Five Decades and Determinants of Total Factor Productivity

The paper reviews the economic growth and productivity dynamics of Philippine economy in the past fifty years. The paper also provides an estimation of determinants of total factor productivity and la...

by Gilberto M Llanto | On 29 May 2012

Black Money

The objective of this paper is to place in the public domain various facets and dimensions of black money and its complex relationship with the policy and administrative regime in the country. The pa...

by Ministry of Finance | On 22 May 2012

Madhya Pradesh Budget Speech: 2012-13

Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri Raghavji presented the budget for year 2012-13. The salient features of the budget estimates of 2012-13 are as follows:- • Total expenditure of ` 80030.98 crores for th...

by Madhya Pradesh Government | On 13 Apr 2012

Highlights of Madhya Pradesh Budget 2012-13

The salient features of the budget estimates of 2012-13 of Madhya Pradesh. [Ministry of Finance Madhya Pradesh]. URL:[http://www.mp.gov.in/finance/index.htm].

by Madhya Pradesh Government | On 04 Apr 2012

State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2011-12

The budgetary data for 2011-12 indicates the commitment of States to carry forward fiscal correction, as evident from the emergence of revenue surplus after a gap of two years and consequent reductio...

by Reserve Bank of India RBI | On 03 Apr 2012

Policy and Processes that Enable Honey Export: A Case Study from India

India started exporting a small amount of honey in 1991-1992 and has now established itself as an important honey exporter to the world market. The quantity exported has increased substantially, and t...

by Harish K Sharma | On 02 Apr 2012

Budget Speech 2012-13: Mizoram

Budget Speech of PU H.LIANSAILOVA HON’BLE FINANCE MINISTER. [Government of Mizoram]. URL:[http://mizoram.nic.in/budget/Interim%20Budget%20Speech%2012-13.pdf].

by Finance Minister Mizoram | On 29 Mar 2012

Highlights of the Budget for FY2012: Japan

1) Allocating budget to the measure for the real revitalization of Japan to recover Japan’s economy and society 2) Reviewing the existing budget based on the result of evaluation by the Policy Propos...

by Ministry of Finance, Japan MOF, Japan | On 28 Mar 2012

Uses and Misuses of Statistics

Statistics is used in our day to day life. Examples are there to show that statistics is misused in many. This can happen when people are information illiterate. [Address at DST-CIMS, BHU on Mar 20, 2...

by Chakrabarty K C | On 27 Mar 2012

Maharashtra Budget Speech 2012-13: Part II

Part of the Budget speech. [Maharashta Budget]. URL:[http://maharashtra.gov.in/pdf/english_speech_part_II.pdf].

by Maharashtra Government | On 27 Mar 2012

How Can Bill and Melinda Gates Increase Other People’s Donations to Fund Public Goods?

A simple theory is developed which formally describes how charities can resolve the information asymmetry problems faced by small donors by working with large donors to generate quality signals. To t...

by Dean Karlan | On 26 Mar 2012

Health Care Financing Reforms in India

The transfer system in India is discussed and analyses expenditure needs of States to provide essential health infrastructure. It also analyzes the fiscal space for health care in terms of stimulati...

by M Govinda Rao | On 19 Mar 2012

Close Eye or Closed Eye: The Case of Export Misinvoicing in Bangladesh

The effect of export subsidies on the under-invoicing of exports in Bangladesh is analyzed. In a framework that allows for unobserved heterogeneity among importing countries and product specificities,...

by Pranav Kumar Gupta | On 16 Mar 2012

Report on China's Central, Local Budgets (2012)

REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CENTRAL AND LOCAL BUDGETS FOR 2011 AND ON DRAFT CENTRAL AND LOCAL BUDGETS FOR 2012. [Ministry of Finance Report]. URL:[http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/news/...

by Ministry of Finance China | On 15 Mar 2012

The Union Budget: A Primer

This week, the finance minister presents a statement to Parliament of how much money the central government expects to raise in the next financial year, and how it will spend that money. The budget sp...

by Avinash Celestine | On 12 Mar 2012

Federal Budget of Pakistan-2011-12

BUDGET SPEECH 2011-2012 by DR. ABDUL HAFEEZ SHAIKH, Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Planning & Development.

by Minister of Finance Pakistan | On 12 Mar 2012

Tax Policy in Developing Countries: Looking Back and Forward

The changing nature of tax policy in developing countries over the last 30 years is reviewed and studied the factors determining the level and structure of tax revenues in such countries and how such...

by Roy Bahl | On 07 Mar 2012

Under trial Prisoners: Quicker Trial and Human Rights

Discussion on the human rights violation of under trial prisoners.

by Ranesh Chandra Majumdar | On 06 Mar 2012

Theft and Loss of Electricity in an Indian State

Utilizing data from the power corporation of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, the politics of electricity theft over a ten year period (2000–09) is studied. It is seen that electricity the...

by Miriam Golden | On 06 Mar 2012

Penance time

The time has come for the governmant to make up for its sins of the past three years. The Budget must be judged on whether it shows that the govt is in the mood to recognize its follies, and in a posi...

by T.N. Ninan | On 05 Mar 2012

Consumer Responses to Incentives to Reduce Plastic Bag Use: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Urban India

In this paper a test for appropriate policies is done that could help control the use of plastic bags in Delhi. In January 2009, the Government of Delhi introduced a wide-ranging ban on the use of p...

by Kanupriya Gupta | On 03 Feb 2012

Transparency in Parliament: A Review of the Procedures and Practices in South Asia along with Recommended Guidelines for Increasing Openness

This paper examines the functioning of Parliaments in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka1 in order to gauge the extent of openness and access from the point of view of both Members of Parliam...

by South Asians for Human Rights SAHR | On 31 Jan 2012

Fiscal Policy in India: Trends and Trajectory

This essay examines the trajectory of India?s fiscal policy with a focus on historical trends, fiscal discipline frameworks, fiscal responses to the global financial crisis and subsequent return to a...

by Supriyo De | On 31 Jan 2012

A Study on Emigration Attitudes of Young Singaporeans (2010)

The study examines the intention to work abroad based on a representative sample of young Singaporeans residing in the city-state. Two thousand and thirteen Singaporeans between the age of 19 to 30 ye...

by Leong Chan Hoong | On 27 Jan 2012

Toward a Framework for Implementation of Climate Change Treaty through Self-enforcing Mechanisms

The paper discusses the pros and cons of the already proposed international cooperative mechanisms toward climate change mitigation and highlights the problem of information revelation, particularly...

by Meeta Keswani Mehra | On 27 Jan 2012

Input Prices, Subsidies and Farmers' Incentives

The paper studies the subsidy policy in Bangladesh. It analyses implications of subsidy policies; both pros and cons and also suggests some possible solutions.

by M Asaduzzaman | On 20 Jan 2012

Consumption Taxes: Their Ramifications for Income Distribution

The distribution effects or incidence of consumption taxes such as the Value Added Tax (VAT), Goods and Services Tax (GST) remains a contentious issue. Three aspects have to be distinguished. First is...

by Parthasarathi Shome | On 13 Dec 2011

A Regulatory Approach to Financial Product Advice and Distribution

Financial distribution, where the distributor is the agent of both the product provider and the customer, has been found to inherently work against the interests of customers, in the form of high ser...

by M Sahoo | On 08 Dec 2011

In Search of Growth

With deep crisis weakening potential output growth, the need for an explicit growth policy is emerging most starkly in Japan, the EU and the US. If properly shaped, this will help to consolidate bud...

by Klaus Deutsch | On 21 Nov 2011

The Pricing Problem of Public Transport in Kerala

The mainstay of the public transport system in Kerala is the private stage carriages (PSC), the economics of operation of which is the subject of this paper. The long run sustainability of the secto...

by Narayana D | On 28 Oct 2011

From Monasteries to Multinationals (and Back): A Historical Review of the Beer Economy

This article reviews beer production, consumption and the industrial organization of breweries throughout history. Monasteries were the centers of the beer economy in the early Middle Ages. Innovation...

by Eline Poelmans | On 14 Oct 2011

Competition for Foreign Capital: Endogenous Objective, Public Investment and Tax

In this paper the objective functions of the regions as well as their decision to provide public investment are endogenized in a model of competition for foreign owned mobile capital. It is demonstra...

by Rupayan Pal | On 04 Oct 2011

User-based Financing of Marine Protection in the Maldives

This paper provides an economic valuation of the recreational uses of atoll-based marine resources in the Republic of the Maldives. A travel demand model to estimate the benefits of atoll-based marin...

by Mahadev G Bhat | On 30 Sep 2011

Why Worry about How Many Species and Their Loss?

We are astonishingly ignorant about how many species are alive on earth today, and even more ignorant about how many we can lose yet still maintain ecosystem services that humanity ultimately depen...

by Robert M May | On 19 Sep 2011

Iraq’s Last Window: Diffusing the Risks of a Petro-State

This paper, examines the possibility of adopting Oil- to- Cash scheme in Iraq. Here, a new opportunity is identified which aims for direct distribution of Iraqi oil rents in the planned production exp...

by Johnny West | On 19 Sep 2011

Tax Devolution and Grant Distribution to States in India Analysis and Roadmap for Alternatives, December 2009

The paper attempts to analyse the impact of devolution of taxes and distribution grants by the Centre to the States in India by taking fourteen major States for the time period 1980-81 to 2006-07. T...

by R. Mohan | On 24 Aug 2011

Determinants of Primary Yield Spreads of States in India: An Econometric Analysis

An attempt is made to identify the determinants of yield spreads between the State and Central government securities in a panel data framework as has been used in several cross-country studies. This...

by Dhritidyuti Bose | On 08 Aug 2011

India’s Low Carbon Inclusive Growth Strategy

This paper reviews India.s low-carbon high growth inclusive policy initiatives, comments on their financial sustainability and environmental sustainability and suggests desirable changes. The focus...

by U. Sankar | On 29 Jul 2011

Fiscal Policy for Poverty Reduction, Reconstruction, and Growth

Growth, poverty reduction, and social peace are all undermined when public expenditure management and taxation are weak and when the fiscal deficit and public debt are not managed successfully. And la...

by Tony Addison | On 04 Jul 2011

On Graham’s Theory of Multicountry Multicommodity Trade

Mathematical formulations of Frank D. Graham’s theory of multicountry multicommodity trade have not provided numerical methods for finding the world trade equilibrium. Graham was in possession of su...

by Rajas Parchure | On 27 Jun 2011

Revenue Potential of Panchayats in Kerala

How much more taxes would it be possible for Panchayats in Kerala to collect? This question is important in deciding the financial allocations to such local governments. Information regarding this m...

by Centre for Development Studies | On 17 Jun 2011

Demand Side Management Options (DSM) for Hotel Industry in Malaysia

Demand Side Management refers to activities designed to change electricity consumption at consumer's end and historically, DSM programmes have been carried out through active intervention by utilities...

by J.P. Painuly | On 06 Jun 2011

Moving to Goods and Services Tax in India: Impact on India’s Growth and International Trade

The broad objectives of this study refer to analysing the impact of introducing comprehensive goods and services tax (GST) on economic growth and international trade; changes in rewards to the fac...

by National Council of Applied Economic Research | On 19 May 2011

Find Me the Money: Financing Climate and Other Global Public Goods

In this paper, four categories of existing resource-mobilization options are examined, including (1) transportation levies; (2) currency and financial transaction taxes; (3) capitalization of IMF S...

by Nancy Birdsall | On 21 Apr 2011

Maharashtra Budget 2011-2012 Part II

Maharashtra Budget Part II

by Maharashtra Government | On 18 Apr 2011

Financial Transactions Taxes

This paper attempts to address both theoretical and practical considerations for a tax such as financial transactions taxes (FTT). It includes examples of FTT in the wider context, for example, on sto...

by Parthasarathi Shome | On 18 Apr 2011

Parliament Session Wrap: Budget Session – February 21 to March 25, 2011

Nine legislative Bills were introduced during the session. Five Bills were passed and one Bill was withdrawn during the session. Several hours were lost due to interruptions on the issues of appointme...

by Kusum Malik | On 28 Mar 2011

Reforming Indirect Taxes in India : Role of Environmental Taxes

Extensive reforms of India's indirect taxes at the central and the state levels has prepared the necessary ground for the implementation of a comprehensive goods and services tax (GST). The Empowere...

by D K Srivastava | On 23 Mar 2011

Role of Critical Infrastructure and Incentives in the Commercialisation of Biotechnology in India: An Analysis

Commercialization is a process by which the new knowledge is converted to products and services of commercial value. The model for commercialization of biotechnology is not a linear one. Due to emer...

by S. Visalakshi | On 18 Mar 2011

Panchayats and Economic Development

The objective of this study is to review the analytical literature on the relationship between decentralisation and development, bring out the impact of decentralisation on economic development from...

by M.Govinda Rao | On 07 Mar 2011

Will it be Different this Time?

All proposals and policy measures in the forthcoming Budget may best be summed up as efforts to improve the sustainability of growth. Specific objectives are likely to be lowering inflation and defici...

by IRIS India IRIS | On 22 Feb 2011

Measuring Accuracy of Projections of Central Taxes by the Finance Commission

This paper looks at the quality of forecasts/assessments made by some of the recent Finance Commissions for the shareable central taxes and own tax revenues of selected states. The Commissions cover...

by D K Srivastava | On 22 Feb 2011

Mixed Duopoly and Environment

They show under general demand and cost conditions that in a mixed duopoly with pollution the government can (and will) implement the socially optimal outputs and abatements by a tax-subsidy scheme...

by Rupayan Pal | On 16 Feb 2011

Kerala Budget 2011-12

The Minister for Finance, Dr. T. M. Thomas Issac presented the Budget for the financial year 2011-2012.

by Government of Kerala Govt | On 14 Feb 2011

India's Low Carbon Inclusive Growth Strategy

India’s low carbon inclusive growth strategy is framed in the context of  multiple goals and its national circumstances. In many cases, co­benefits  such as energy security, universal access to cl...

by U. Sankar | On 28 Jan 2011

Postconflict Countries: Strategy for Rebuilding Fiscal Institutions

This paper reviews the challenges and experiences in rebuilding fiscal institutions in postconflict environments, based on advice from the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department to selected countries. Th...

by Sanjeev Gupta | On 20 Jan 2011

Designing Economic Instruments and Participatory Institutions for Environmental Management in India

This paper examines the possibility of using economic instruments, especially pollution taxes and bargaining approaches, as a means to encourage or improve people's participation in environmental mana...

by N.M. Murty | On 13 Jan 2011

The Report of the Thirteenth Finance Commission Conundrum in Conditionalities

The focus of this paper is to examine the approach of the Commission in regard to its Terms of Reference (ToR) and analyse the recommendations relating to its main task, namely tax devolution and gr...

by M Govinda Rao | On 07 Jan 2011

Repayment Incentives and the Distribution of Gains from Group Lending

Group loans with joint liability have been a distinguishing feature of many micro nance programs. While such lending has bene tted millions of borrowers, major lending insti- tutions have acknowledg...

by Jean-Marie Baland | On 17 Dec 2010

Preventing Odious Obligations: A New Tool for Protecting Citizens from Illegitimate Regimes

This report sets out a way to prevent an all-too-common form of theft from some of the world’s poorest people. An illegitimate, unelected regime signs a contract with a foreign agent, handing ov...

by Centre for Global Development | On 10 Dec 2010

Environmental Taxation and Revenue for Development

This paper considers the role of global environmental taxes both as instruments for improving the global environment and as a source of revenue for funding economic development. It reviews the gene...

by Agnar Sandmo | On 22 Nov 2010

Fiscal Policy in a Growth Framework

This paper assesses recent theorising and empirical evidence on the impact of fiscal policy—taxes, public expenditures and budget deficits—on long-run growth. It considers the relevance of recent ad...

by Norman Gemmell | On 12 Nov 2010

Does Partial Privatization Improve the Environment?

This paper shows that, in case of differentiated products mixed duopoly, environmental damage increases (decreases) with the level of privatization, if the level of privatization is less (more) than ...

by Rupayan Pal | On 03 Nov 2010

Estimation of Tax Leakage and its Impact on Fiscal Health in Kerala

This paper is an attempt to analyse the tax leakage in the broader context of fiscal crisis in Kerala, highlighting the relationship between the two. Tax leakage by causing a revenue drain may adver...

by Rakhe PB | On 27 Oct 2010

Taxing Powers and Developmental Role of the Indian States: A Study with Reference to Kerala

The study analyses whether the growing State Domestic Product (SDP) of Kerala since the latter half of the 1980s, has acted as a larger resource base for the State and finds that it has not. While...

by R. Mohan | On 08 Oct 2010

Commodity Taxation and Social Welfare : The Generalised Ramsey Rule

Commodity taxes have three distinct roles: (1) revenue collection, (2) interpersonal redistribution, and (3) resource allocation. The paper presents an integrated treatment of these three concerns...

by David Coady | On 01 Oct 2010

Poverty and Vulnerability in Rural China: Effects of Taxation

This paper studies the impact of taxation on poverty and ex ante vulnerability of households in rural China based on national household survey data in 1988, 1995 and 2002. It has been confirmed that...

by Katsushi S. Imai | On 21 Sep 2010

Evasion at the top

The government gave out some interesting numbers on Monday. The revenue secretary told a news conference that nearly 96 per cent of the 32.5 million who pay income tax reported a taxable income of und...

by T.N. Ninan | On 14 Sep 2010

Direct Taxation of Agriculture

Extension of the wealth tax to agriculture, it will be recalled, was opposed on the ground that it would hurt even the small and medium-sized farmers. This argument was advanced...

by K. N. Raj | On 01 Sep 2010

'Follow the money'

This editorial is about understanding the mining business in the state of Orissa by following the money.

by T.N. Ninan | On 30 Aug 2010

Moving to Goods and Services Tax in India: Impact on India’s Growth and International Trade

The differential multiple tax regime across sectors of production leads to distortions in allocation of resources thus introducing inefficiencies in the sectors of domestic production. With regard t...

by Rajesh Chadha | On 12 Aug 2010

Fertility, Female Labor Supply and Public Policy

Historically, in virtually all developed economies there seems to be clear evidence of an inverse relationship between female labor supply and fertility. However, particularly in the last decade or...

by Patricia Apps | On 10 Aug 2010

Do Professionals Choke Under Pressure?

High rewards or the threat of severe punishment do not only provide incentives to exert high levels of effort but also create pressure. Such pressure can cause paradoxical performance effects, namel...

by Thomas J. Dohmen | On 06 Aug 2010

'Cause I'm the taxman

This piece is a discussion of the pros and cons of incomes tax, and the people who administer it, initiated on the occasion of Income Tax Day.

by T.N. Ninan | On 03 Aug 2010

Designing Economic Instruments and Participatory Institutions for Environmental Management in India

This paper examines the possibility of using economic instruments, especially pollution taxes and bargaining approaches, as a means to encourage or improve people’s participation in environmental ma...

by M.N. Murty | On 19 Jul 2010

Privacy, time consistent optimal labor income taxation and education policy

Incomplete information is a commitment device for time consistency problems. In the context of time consistent labour income taxation privacy can lead to a Pareto superior outcome and increases the ef...

by Kai A. Konrad | On 09 Jul 2010

Wine Industry in Maharashtra: An Analysis

Two of the countryʹs biggest grape-producing districts, Nasik and Sangli, are in Maharashtra; 20,000 hectares of vineyards here grow more than one lac tons of grapes a year. As much as 99 per ce...

by Sudipto Mitra | On 15 Jun 2010

Restraints On Capital Flows: What Are They?

Though there has been much general debate recently about the pros and cons of capital controls, there remains substantial confusion and uncertainty about what exactly is entailed by the term ‘restra...

by Ramkishen Rajan | On 11 Jun 2010

Urban Governance and Finance in India

Over 330 million people live in India’s cities; 35 cities have a population of over a million and three (Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata) of the 10 largest metropolises in the world are in India. India’s...

by M. Govinda Rao | On 21 May 2010

Regulatory Structure for Financial Stability and Development

Stricter regulatory surveillance in emerging market economies (EMEs) largely insulated their financial systems from the crisis. Development and convergence of regulatory apparatus has been rapid. In...

by Ashima Goyal | On 29 Mar 2010

Karnataka Budget 2010-11

Budget speech by finance minister of Karnataka

by Government of Karnataka GoK | On 05 Mar 2010

Now for the Hard Part

Cutting the deficit this year was the easy part; the real fiscal challenge lies ahead

by T.N. Ninan | On 03 Mar 2010

Budget 2010-2011

Budget speech 2010-2011 by Pranab Mukherjee

by Pranab Mukherjee | On 26 Feb 2010

Tax Devolution and Grant Distribution to States in India Analysis and Roadmap for Alternatives

The paper attempts to analyse the impact of devolution of taxes and distribution grants by the Centre to the States in India by taking fourteen major States for the time period 1980-81 to 2006-07. T...

by R Mohan | On 15 Feb 2010

Dilli Sarkar’s Advertisement Expenditure: Information or Publicity?

To find out whether our government is spending an astronomical amount of taxpayer’s money publicising itself rather than disseminating information, facts and figures were assimilated. By tracking f...

by Kumar Gaurav | On 29 Jan 2010

Towards A Competitive Economy: VAT and Customs Duty Reform

In this paper the issue of indirect tax reform, with a special focus on customs duty reform is examined. [WP]

by Arvind Virmani | On 28 Jan 2010

Japan’s Foreign Direct Investment Experiences in India: Lessons Learnt from Firm Level Surveys

The paper first gives a brief history and comparison of Japanese foreign direct investment into India and other Asian countries, highlighting the fact that Japanese investment into India is quite lo...

by Srabani Roy Choudhury | On 19 Jan 2010

A Note on Estimating Tax Elasticities

The most popular technique for estimating tax elasticities is the “Proportional Adjustment” method. This paper shows that the standard methodology used will almost invariably lead to biased elastici...

by Pronab Sen | On 04 Dec 2009

Post-Conflict Recovery: Does the Global Economy Work for Peace?

This paper mainly addresses the economic dimensions, concentrating on the importance of international trade to state-building and the need for global public goods in a global market economy. The focu...

by Tony Addison | On 23 Nov 2009

Delegation and Emission Tax in a Differentiated Oligopoly

How product differentiation as well as strategic managerial delegation affects optimal emission tax rate, environmental damage and social welfare, under alternative modes of product market competiti...

by Rupayan Pal | On 04 Nov 2009

Horizontal Equity and the Thirteenth Finance Commission: Issues and Ponderables

An attempt has been made in this paper to critically analyse the parameters/ criteria on which basis awards are finalized. With special reference to poorer states, the following aspects have been di...

by Keshab Das | On 03 Nov 2009

Financing the Panchayati Raj Institutions: Flagging Some Issues For The 13th CFC

The Finances of the PRIs are looked into. The role of 13th Finance Commission is explained. Some ‘learnings’ from International experience is given.

by Abhay Pethe | On 15 Oct 2009

Emerging Asia's Middle Class-A Force to be Reckoned With

The emergence of a large and dynamic middle class raises Asia’s profile as an attractive market destination for products ranging from consumer goods to financial services. There are even hopes that th...

by Steffen Dyck | On 06 Oct 2009

Incentives in Elementary Education - do They Make a Difference

This study tried to bring together the experiences of different approaches to incentives followed by six NGOs in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Issues deal...

by Vimala Ramachandran | On 11 Aug 2009

Union Budget-First Cut Analysis 2009-2010

The thrust of this budget on the expenditure side is twofold. Continue with the fiscal stimulus measures and extend these for another six months or one years as the case maybe. Significant among these...

by IRIS India IRIS | On 09 Jul 2009

Sal Seeds, an Untapped Resource in India

Sal seeds could provide effective livelihoods support for poor people when few alternative natural resource based strategies are available

by Sanjoy Patnaik | On 23 Jun 2009

Subnational Taxes in Developing Countries: The Way Forward

It is critical to emphasize that intergovernmental fiscal relations must be thought of as a system and that all the pieces in the system must fit together if decentralization is to work properly. Vari...

by Richard.M. Bird | On 16 Jun 2009

Goods and Services Tax for India

The paper contours of a feasible design of VAT in India. It also takes on board the various alternatives proposed. It looks at the issues that need resolution and the options available for resolving t...

by R.Kavita Rao | On 12 Jun 2009

Straddling Faultlines : India's Foreign Policy Toward The Great Middle East

India’s foreign policy has had an anomalous quality since the time Jawaharlal Nehru resolutely attempted to steer clear of Cold War alliances. This continues to be so given India’s unique situation of...

by Sushil J Aaron | On 21 May 2009

Sharing Traditinal Knowledge for Commerce-the Power of Bargaining Strength

The paper is motivated by concerns about the depletion of traditional knowledge and recent efforts to preserve this knowledge through commercial use. The study looks at incentives that can induce comp...

by Aparna K Bhagirathi | On 30 Apr 2009

Making the Politician and the Bureaucrat Deliver: Employment Guarantee in India

The paper examines the division of tasks required between politicians and bureaucrats to run an effective rural employment guarantee scheme (EGS) in India, in the context of Indian history and habits.

by Ashima Goyal | On 21 Apr 2009

Governance in Public Transport Systems: Comparing Indian Railways and Airways

The paper examines the basic reasons and feasible remedies for organizational weakness, and the possible contribution of ownership, industry and management structure, leadership, social norms, and i...

by Ashima Goyal | On 12 Feb 2009

Mitigating Carbon Emission through Economic Instruments: An Indian Perspective

The paper has two objectives. One, to analyse the pattern of energy usage in India and the implications thereof for carbon emission; two, to examine whether pricing and taxation policies have any ro...

by Samantak Das | On 24 Dec 2008

Reducing Currency and Maturity Mismatch

The main objectives of this report are to identify and propose policies, factors and conditions that could mitigate or avoid double mismatches. policies here means any course of action pursued and ad...

by Khee-Giap Tan | On 19 Dec 2008

Traveling Agents: Political Change and Bureaucratic Turnover in India

Politicians face high-powered electoral pressures while bureaucrats face longer-term, low powered incentives. Given constitutional constraints, what incentives do politicians employ to control bureauc...

by Lakshmi Iyer | On 02 Dec 2008

On The Existence and Efficiency of Equilibria Under Liability Rules

The first objective of this paper is to contribute to the debate regarding the desirability of the sharing of liability for the accident loss. The second objective is to extend the efficiency analysi...

by Ram Singh | On 08 Oct 2008

Issues Before the Thirteenth Finance Commission

The paper argues that irrespective of the wording of the Terms of Reference (ToR), the Commission would do well to focus on its primary task of recommending transfers to serve the objective of equit...

by M.Govinda Rao | On 06 Oct 2008

Pakistan Budget in Brief 2008

Budget in Brief is designed to summarize the detailed information into an overview comprising essential information about expenditure and receipt and the resulting budget balance.

by Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan, | On 22 Sep 2008

Tax Challenges Facing Developing Countries

Most developing countries continue to face serious problems in developing adequate and responsive tax systems. This paper reviews the three principal ways in which developing countries may expand and...

by Richard M. Bird | On 25 Aug 2008

Impact of Proposed Commodity Transaction Tax

The relationship between trading activity, volatility and transaction cost using a three-equation structural model for five top selected commodities namely Gold, Copper, Petroleum Crude, Soya Oil and...

by Pravakar Sahoo | On 07 Aug 2008

New issues in Indian macro policy

For many decades, macro-policy in India was conducted in an environment with five key elements: ˆ Agricultural shocks rather than a conventional business cycle; A closed economy; deeply distorti...

by Ajay Shah | On 13 May 2008

Andhra Pradesh Budget 2008-09

SPEECH OF SRI K. ROSAIAH, HONOURABLE FINANCE MINISTER WHILE PRESENTING THE BUDGET FOR THE YEAR 2008-09 TO THE ANDHRA PRADESH STATE LEGISLATURE.

by Government Andhra Pradesh | On 10 Mar 2008

Kerala Budget Speech 2008-09

Budget speech 2008-09 by Finance Minister Dr. Thomas Issac

by Government of Kerala Govt | On 07 Mar 2008

Budget at a Glance 2008-09, Rajasthan

A glance at the budget presented by the government of Rajasthan 2008-09.

by Rajasthan Government | On 05 Mar 2008

Union Budget 2008-09: A Bag of Tricks to Get the Vote

The budget is an election budget. There are lots of sectors which needs more attention. Many questions are raised at the end of the document which the government may fail to answer

by Arun Kumar | On 04 Mar 2008

A Quick Look at Orissa Budget 2008-09

Quick findings for feedback as well as further analysis. [Contact Pravas Ranjan Mishra CYSD, E-1, Institutional Area, RRL PO., Bhubaneswar India - 751 013 Tel. +91-674-2300774, 2301725 Fax: +91-674-...

by Orissa Government | On 22 Feb 2008

Third Quarter Review of Annual Monetary Policy for the Year 2007-08

Review consists of three sections: I. Assessment of Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments; II. Stance of Monetary Policy; and III. Monetary Measures. An analytical profile of macroeconomic a...

by Y V Reddy | On 30 Jan 2008

Managing Migration in thePhilippines: Lessons for India

The significance of international migration in the Philippines economy and society is discussed. The Government of Philippines plays a supportive and regulatory role promoting internationational migr...

by S. Irudaya Rajan | On 19 Jan 2008

A Success Story

India's economic reforms are evaluated.

by T.N. Ninan | On 26 Nov 2007

Newsletter on Regional Economy: A bi-monthly four-state update

A monthly compilation by IRIS.

by IRIS India IRIS | On 22 Oct 2007

The Trade-Off Among Carbon Emissions, Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in India

This study examines the consequences of a) a domestic carbon tax policy, and, b) participation in a global tradable emission permits regime on carbon emissions, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and pover...

by Vijay Prakash Ojha | On 07 Jul 2007

Editorial: Outlays Only, Not Outcomes?

The Budget does not sufficiently recognize the need for re-balancing the role of the state and the market, and of the public and the private sectors for managing increasingly complex economic and stra...

by Mukul Asher | On 07 Mar 2007

Union budget 2007-08: What May We Expect?

It is unrealistic to expect all problems to be solved in one budget. But it is possible for one budget to do a great deal of damage

by Vinod Vyasulu | On 27 Feb 2007

State Finances and Effectiveness of Policy Measures: An Analysis of Indian States

This paper provides a phase-wise analytical review of the fiscal situation of the Indian major States over the previous two and half decades and examines the effectiveness of the policy measures to s...

by Rajmal | On 10 Jan 2007

Central Finances in India- Alternative to Procrustean Fiscal Correction

This paper examines the trends in Central finances over a threedecadal period beginning from the 1970s. It is found that there is a lack of buoyancy in all the major sources of revenue of the Centra...

by R Mohan | On 19 Dec 2006

Mahatma Gandhi and the Prisoner’s Dilemma: Strategic Civil Disobedience and Great Britain’s Great Loss of Empire in India

This paper examines the relationship between statutory monopoly and collective action as a multi-person assurance game culminating in an end to British Empire in India. In a simple theoretical model,...

by Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky | On 27 Nov 2006

Wrong focus

If business gains at the expense of other stake-holders (consumers, the tax department, farmers), economic benefits get captured by a small minority at the top of the pyramid. Even without skewed poli...

by T.N. Ninan | On 01 Oct 2006

Ways of Paying for Global Public-Goods

simple schedule of governmental contributions, of paying for global public-goods and common purposes: use of IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs); the United Kingdom’s International Finance Facility (IFF...

by Anthony Clunies-Ross, | On 02 Jun 2006

Strengthening the Export Competitiveness of firms in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

This paper attempts to identify the factors that determine the export competitiveness of firms in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Our findings suggest that the competitiveness of firms depends not...

by Aradhna Aggarwal | On 21 Apr 2006

Union Budget 2006-07: Reforms in Indirect Taxes: Long on Rhetoric

The Finance Minister’s speech presenting the Union Budget 2006-07 indicated that long-overdue reforms of the tariff structure had been undertaken in this year’s budget. But a careful analysis of thes...

by Sukumar Mukhopadhyay | On 22 Mar 2006

Sri Lanka: Budget Speech by Finance Minister in Parliament

'Mahinda Chintana' : Towards a New Sri Lanka

by Ministry of Finance and Planning Sri Lanka | On 05 Mar 2006

Sri Lanka: Budget Brief, 2006: Towards a New Sri Lanka

Tax Proposals and Administration Summary of Budget 2006

by Ministry of Finance and Planning Sri Lanka | On 05 Mar 2006

Sri Lanka: Recent Economic Developments: Highlights of 2005 and Prospects for 2006

Economic Review of Developments in 2005 and Prospects for 2006. Presented before the Budget for 2006.

by Ministry of Finance and Planning Sri Lanka | On 05 Mar 2006

Editorial: Union Budget: Securing its Legacy

Union Budget 2006-07 breaks new ground in many areas, and continues on the path of modernizing the tax system. It also gives deserved recognition to key allocation priorities. But its legacy will be...

by Mukul Asher | On 05 Mar 2006

Union Budget 2006-07: Securing its Legacy

Union Budget 2006-07 breaks new ground in many areas, and continues on the path of modernizing the tax system. It also gives deserved recognition to key allocation priorities. But its legacy will be...

by Mukul Asher | On 04 Mar 2006

Union Budget 2006-07: Speech

The bulk of the resources must go to the UPA Government’s eight flagship programmes: Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid-day Meal Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission, Total Sanitation Campaign, National...

by Ministry of Finance | On 28 Feb 2006

Economic Survey 2005-06,Chapter 2

Public Finance

by Ministry of Finance | On 27 Feb 2006

Widening of Tax Base and Evasion of Tax: Thirty-third Report of the Standing Committee on Finance (2005-06)

The challenge to the tax system to expand both the revenue base and progressively bring into the net larger number of taxpayers remains as daunting as ever. The object is not to ignore the generally...

by Standing Committee on Finance | On 26 Feb 2006

COAI Proposals for Union Budget 2006-07

Measures sought by the association.

by Cellular Operators Asociation of India (COAI) | On 16 Feb 2006

Raising the Tax Ratio by Reining in the 'Tax Breaks': An Agenda for Action

The increase in direct taxes has not been able to offset the decline that resulted from the reduction in customs tariff and decline in excise revenue. The task facing the policymakers now is to explor...

by Amaresh Bagchi | On 01 Feb 2006

Trends and Issues in Tax Policy and Reform in India

The Indian tax reform experience can provide useful lessons for many countries due to the largeness of the country with multilevel fiscal framework, uniqueness of the reform experience and difficult...

by M.Govinda Rao | On 10 Nov 2005

Economic Backwardness in History: Deviation from a Eurocentric Theme

This paper aims to demonstrate that the economic behaviour of ordinary men and women in the pre-colonial Deccan was as much ‘capitalistic’ as that of similar agents in contemporary Europe. The differe...

by Neeraj Hatekar | On 21 Oct 2005

Price Elasticity Estimates for Tobacco and Other Addictive Goods in India

The tax base of tobacco in India is found to be heavily depended on about fteen per cent of the tobacco users who represent cigarettes smokers. Non-cigarette tobacco products used by the majority of...

by Rijo John | On 22 Aug 2005