Working Paper
Policy diffusion within international organizations
I analyse the evolution of the International Monetary Fund tax policy advice in three countries commonly used for tax evasion or avoidance: Panama, Seychelles, and the Netherlands. A review of loan agreements and Country Reports covering 1999 to 2017...
Working Paper
Wealth Distribution, Lobbying and Economic Growth
This paper presents a model allowing one to analyze the joint determination of inequality, taxes, human capital and growth. We consider the political economy of redistribution between three income groups in a dynamic economy. The paper seeks to...
Working Paper
Are less developed countries more exposed to multinational tax avoidance?
NOTE | Revised version May 2017 available. View and download the revised version. We use a global dataset with information on 210,000 corporations in 102 countries to investigate whether cross-border profit shifting by multinational firms is more...
Working Paper
Herding, rent-seeking taxpayers, and endemic corruption
In an environment with extensive corruption where much of the population evades paying their full taxes due, we tackle the question of optimal taxation when constituencies with opposing objectives (the poor and the rich) push tax policy in different...
Working Paper
The end of Londongrad? The impact of beneficial ownership transparency on offshore investment in UK property
The United Kingdom’s (UK) property markets are thought to be a common destination for corrupt and criminal assets and money laundering, with investment often through offshore shell companies. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we...
Working Paper
Revealing 21 per cent of GDP in hidden assets
This paper studies the effectiveness of tax amnesties and their impacts on capital taxation and public spending. We leverage rich policy variation from Argentina, where left- and right-wing governments implemented multiple programmes and achieved...
Working Paper
So close and yet so far: the ability of mandatory disclosure rules to crack down on offshore tax evasion
We study the short-term effect of the introduction of the mandatory disclosure programme for aggressive tax arrangements by focusing on the one introduced in May 2018 under Council Directive 2018/288/EU (or DAC6). Employing bilateral data on cross...
Working Paper
The tax-price elasticity of offshore tax avoidance
This study leverages a unique data set on the universe of transactions exiting the Ecuadorian economy to estimate the tax-price elasticity of demand for tax-sheltering activities using offshore fiscal havens. I determine this elasticity quasi...
Working Paper
Countering global oil theft: responses and solutions
This second of two papers on global oil theft discusses ways to reduce oil theft, misappropriation, and fraud. At US$133 billion per year, oil is the largest stolen natural resource globally, while fuel is the most smuggled natural resource. Oil...
Working Paper
Global oil theft: impact and policy responses
This paper, the first of two on global oil theft and fraud, discusses the prevalence, methods, and consequences of global oil theft, valued at US$133 billion per year and equivalent to 5–7 per cent of the global market for crude oil and petroleum...
Working Paper
The International Fiscal Implications of Global Poverty Reduction and Global Public Goods Provision
The mixed record on the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets and the focus on global public goods in post-MDG debates questions the future of traditional development co-operation (official development assistance, ODA). Meanwhile...
Working Paper
Deflecting my burden, hindering redistribution
This paper proposes to understand a singular but salient factor that enables the wealthy to deflect their tax burden downwards: elites’ political leverage to shape legislation via their capacity to influence political actors and policy outcomes. The...
Journal Article
Herding, taxpayer's rent seeking and endemic corruption
In an environment with extensive corruption where much of the population evades paying their full taxes due, we tackle the question of optimal taxation when constituencies with conflicting objectives (the poor and the rich) push tax policy in...
Working Paper
Income under-reporting and tax evasion
Personal income tax is attracting more attention from the Vietnamese government, which has been looking for a way to reinforce its budget revenue. Although this tax plays an increasing role, representing 7.3 per cent of the revenue expected in 2018...
Journal Article
Are less developed countries more exposed to multinational tax avoidance?
This study uses a global dataset with information about 210,000 corporations in 142 countries to investigate whether tax avoidance by multinational firms is more prevalent in less-developed countries. The paper proposes a novel approach to studying...
Working Paper
Offshore tax evasion in developing countries
Offshore tax havens cause large losses of government revenue by facilitating tax evasion by wealthy individuals. This paper focuses on offshore tax evasion in developing countries and documents two empirical regularities. First, there is no clear...