Explaining Changes in Tax Burdens in Latin America: Does Politics Trump Economics?

This paper examines whether elections, which are generally held on fixed dates, and banking crises explain the timing of tax reforms and the allocation of the additional tax burden. Using an original fine-grained dataset of tax reforms, the paper finds support for the role of these two sources of variation. In particular, the probability of reform is higher during banking crises. During electoral periods, increasing taxes becomes highly unlikely, even if the government is facing financing problems. Interestingly, politics seem to trump economics: banking crises do not affect the probability of having a reform during electoral times. Moreover, the presence of an IMF program affects the tax instruments chosen: countries with a program increase the value-added tax, while those without raise the personal income tax. Finally, the ideology of the president does not explain who bears the additional tax burden.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Inter-American Development Bank
Other Authors:	Mark Hallerberg
Format:	Working Papers biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Inter-American Development Bank
Subjects:	Public Administration, Taxation, Financial Crisis and Structural Adjustement, Fiscal Policy, Elections, F41 - Open Economy Macroeconomics H2 - Taxation Subsidies and Revenue, Ideology;Policymaking;Elections;Taxation;Fiscal reform;Political economy;Banking crises,
Online Access:	https://doi.org/10.18235/0000135 https://publications.iadb.org/en/explaining-changes-tax-burdens-latin-america-does-politics-trump-economics
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