Tax policy in developing countries : a World Bank symposium

Tax reform is an important element of growth-oriented adjustment programs. Many developing countries have increasingly begun to restructure their tax systems to raise revenues or to improve the revenue elasticity and buoyancy of the tax structure. These reform movements have also tried to eliminate onerous levels of taxation, to reduce distortionary taxation of assets and sectors, to protect the poorest of the poor from the tax net, and to provide partial relief from the unwelcome effects of inflation. To help member countries deal with this set of issues, the World Bank held a conference to compare the experiences that developing countries have had with tax reform. Leading tax policy specialists from industrial and developing countries discussed the lessons of tax reform in developing countries, selected aspects of tax policy, and the agenda for future research in this important policy area. This volume presents sixteen papers from the conference, which provides some coherent themes about the current status and future directions of tax reform and advance certain perspectives on emerging issues for tax policy. The principal themes are tax reform experiences, design of indirect taxes, taxation of foreign investment, taxation of agricultural land and financial institutions, tax incidence analysis, quantitative tools for tax policy analysis, tax policy and economic growth, and the agenda for future research.