This paper focuses on how inflation interacts with taxes and interest rates to affect capital formation.1 It uses a simple credit-market framework to explain how inflation magnifies the distorting effects of taxation when the tax treatment of interest income and expense is not fully indexed to inflation.2 The distortion involves a real tax wedge consisting of the difference between the real int...

This paper outlines the importance of the Millennium Development Goals for urban populations, and some reasons for concern regarding their implementation. It argues that the institutional structures and processes of international donors and national governments can be incompatible with the effective achievement of poverty reduction. It also explains that the relevance of the Millennium Developm...

Public school finance mechanisms differ from state to state, and they are often extremely complex. Most commonly, the federal government contributes about 7% of the total school budget, and the remainder is split fairly evenly between local contributions (primarily raised through local property taxes) and state contributions (primarily raised through state income taxes and sales taxes). The ave...

This paper studies optimum income taxation in a small open economy where households differ with respect to their endowments with wealth. The government raises taxes on income from labor and wealth and a source tax on capital used in domestic production. To avoid taxes, households may, at some cost, shift capital to labor income and vice versa. The government can only observe income after shifti...

Trends in the distribution of family disposable income in Australia over the last two decades are examined using the unit record files of the ABS Income Distribution and Income and Housing Costs surveys. The effects on income inequality of government intervention, in the form of provision of transfers such as pensions, benefits and allowances, and through personal income tax, are also investiga...

Background and Objectives: In May 2003, the government of British Columbia adopted income-based pharmacare, replacing an age-based program. Stated policy goals included the reduction and reallocation of government spending. It was also hoped that income-based deductibles would increase consumer price sensitivity in decision-making. This analysis measured policy impacts on private and public exp...