Government finances and spending

Perceptions of private benefits from hypothecated tax increases may be correlated with income either because individuals with different incomes are more or less interested in public services or because they anticipate bearing different shares of the implied tax burden.

This paper examines the arguments for changing the ways that UK drug prices are regulated.

The 1980s tax reforms and the changing dispersion of wages offer one the best opportunities yet to estimate labour supply effects.

This report provides a response to the government's proposals. Is the current local government system likely to discourage "over-spending" by councils in the absence of capping powers? Will the government's proposals make the link between local spending decisions and Council Tax bills clearer to voters? Can measures to encourage councils to respond to the views of their residents be successful in making councils more accountable to local people?.

This article assesses the merits of using private finance to deliver public services against three criteria: whether it will lead to additional investment in social infrastructure, whether it represents good value for the taxpayer's money and whether the use of private finance will reduce the public sector's flexibility to pursue its public service objectives.

In this commentary, the authors examine public support for more local decision making and increased freedom for local councils to raise council tax levels. They also assess whether local voters would support higher spending on local services such as schools, housing and the police if they had to pay for it directly through higher council tax bills.

The UK experience has been that forecasts of the PSBR have been beset with problems since the

This report looks at how corporate income taxes have changed over the past two decades, what incentives they provide for domestic and international investment, and whether changes in the international economy have helped shape these reforms.

This paper investigates whether tax competition can survive under tax coordination, when information is private or nonverifiable.

This paper examines the role of international tax evasion for the choice of an optimal foreign tax credit by a capital exporting region

This paper outlines the connection between the formal description of the tax system and the marginal rate schedule faced by taxpayers.

This paper analyses the windfall tax on the privatised utilities, introduced in the 1997 Budget.

The European Commission has proposed a fundamental reform of VAT in member states, aimed at establishing a durable, or ӤefinitiveԬ VAT regime, compatible with the requirements of the increasingly integrated European single market. Contrary to the expectations of many commentators, the proposals for the definitive regime have not simply revived the Commission's 1987 proposals for the post-1992 VAT regime. Instead, there are some striking new proposals ֠including a single VAT ӤomicileԠfor each business engaged in Europe-wide trade. This commentary describes the rationale of the Commission's new proposals, and compares it with the current ӴransitionalԠregime and other available alternatives.

This commentary discusses the background to the policy, presents the economic arguments for and against the levy, and examines some of the issues about how the levy might actually operate in practice.

This paper examines the impact of the UK housing benefit system on the financial returns to employment of people in local authority or Housing Association accommodation.