The traditional economic case for decentralised fiscal choice is based on the welfare gains from an improved allocation of resourceswithin the public sector. Fiscal decentralizationallows individualjurisdictions(I shall refer to them as «local governments») to tailor the levels of local public outputs to the particular tastes and other circumstances that characterizetheir respective communities...

This paper discusses capital gains taxation on movable property in Switzerland which was completely abolished at the canton level in 1996 but is now under political discussion as a tax at the confederation level. Economic reasoning on the features of the Swiss tax system and empirical results for canton data on the capital gains tax in the past suggest that such a tax has a negative effect on r...

These figures contrast with the World Bank’s widely publicised 2005 estimates of global gains from a ‘likely Doha scenario’ of less than US$100 billion, with just US$16 billion going to developing countries. So, have economists found another US$150-$350 billion in benefits for developing countries that the World Bank missed in 2005? Is development back in the Doha Round? The answer, of course, ...

The Gains and Losses from Agricultural Concentration