Publications

A Lack Of Transparency. Do You Know About The Taxes Your Government Does NOT Collect?

and | 20 January 2020
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Tax Expenditures
All over the planet, governments are desperate for funds to finance social policies, public infrastructure and development projects. Yet, the very same governments routinely forego huge amounts of tax revenues by granting tax incentives to investors, setting lower value added tax rates for the consumption ... continue reading

Legitimacy Challenges to Central Banks: Sketching a Way Forward

| 19 January 2020
Monetary, Discussion Notes | Tags: Central Banks, Governing Finance
Delegation to independent agencies (IAs) can reap real benefits for policy making. In the case of monetary policy, it shores up the credibility of the central bank. However, it is generally accepted that the discretion of IAs needs to be constrained to ensure their legitimacy. This ... continue reading

Against Amnesia: Re-Imagining Central Banking

and | 10 January 2020
Monetary, Discussion Notes | Tags: Central Banks, Governing Finance
The purpose of the present paper is to identify and challenge contemporary adherence to the core of the prevailing monetary policy consensus. This consensus consists of what we call the holy trinity of the inflation targeting paradigm: price stability as the primary goal of the ... continue reading

Tax Expenditures and Complexity in a VAT System: The Case of Brazil

| 7 January 2020
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Tax Expenditures, VAT
Despite its known regressivity, the value-added tax (VAT) has been considered a robust tool for development, especially if integrated into a well-implemented tax-and-benefit system. VAT is often considered a neutral tax that minimizes distortions and is particularly relevant to low- and middle-income countries due to ... continue reading

Climate Risk and Financial Systems of Latin America: Regulatory, Supervisory and Industry Practices in the Region and Beyond

, , , and | 18 December 2019
Monetary, Discussion Notes | Tags: Central Banks, Climate Risk, Financial Regulation, Green Finance, Latin America
In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), regional supervisors and regulators have not yet explicitly included nor addressed climate-related risks in binding regulations and/or supervisory measures for the financial sector. This implies significant work ahead for the LAC financial sector to develop effective and complete ... continue reading

Housing Taxation in Europe

, , , and | 18 December 2019
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Housing, Tax Expenditures
Tax incentives favouring homeownership are widely used in developed economies. Homeownership is often thought to bring a number of positive contributions, from the promotion of households´ saving to enhanced community engagement. However, housing tax incentives are also considered as a major source of distortions for ... continue reading

Climate Risks in Financial Assets

, and | 4 November 2019
Monetary, Discussion Notes | Tags: Asset Prices, Climate Risk, Climate Stress Tests
This note reviews the empirical evidence available in the academic literature about the impact of climate-related risks on financial assets. It addresses three main questions: does climate change already affect financial asset returns? What is the potential impact of future climate-related costs on financial asset ... continue reading

Unconventional Monetary Policy and Inequality – Is Japan Unique?

and | 20 September 2019
Monetary, Research Papers | Tags: Inequality, Japan, Quantitative Easing
For over a decade, but especially since the start of Abenomics in 2013, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has been increasing the monetary base rapidly by implementing an unconventional monetary policy (UMP). In a 2014 study, we found that Japan’s UMP had increased income inequality. ... continue reading

Distributional Impact of Unconventional Monetary Policies

| 25 June 2019
Monetary, Discussion Notes | Tags: Income Inequality, QE
The sustained application of accommodative monetary policies has led to concerns that they were aggravating inequality. The criticism has come from several quarters, from academics to private sector participants, from politicians to media and civil society organizations. Some argued that by boosting housing and stock ... continue reading

What the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Means for Tax Expenditures

| 20 June 2019
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Income Tax, Inequality, Tax Expenditures
In a new paper, my former Tax Policy Center colleague Daniel Berger and I calculate that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) modestly reduced the cost of tax expenditures in the individual income tax and made them slightly less regressive. We estimate that ... continue reading