Publications

Services Trade under the WTO

| 31 January 2026
Trade, Research Papers | Tags: Services Trade, Trade Governance, WTO
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is one of the four pillars of the World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995. Although services have always been traded, they were considered non-tradable both by policy makers and by scholars at the time. ... continue reading

Industrial Policy: ‘Europe Can No Longer Afford the Inefficiency of a National Patchwork’

and | 30 January 2026
Fiscal, Op-Eds | Tags: Competition, Decarbonization, Europe, Fiscal Space, Industrial Policy
Faced with American and Chinese competition, Europe must undertake a radical shift: move from a mosaic of national subsidies to a unified and more intelligent industrial policy, argue Patrick Lenain and Rens van Tilburg.  ... continue reading

Who is Afraid of AI? Who Should Be?

, , , , , , , , , and | 26 January 2026
Trade, Policy Briefs | Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Employment, Innovation
What are the consequences of the rise in AI for workers? Will AI create or destroy jobs? Conceptually, AI can both substitute for and complement human labour. ... continue reading

Direction Ahead for Low-Carbon Development Finance in Vietnam

| 15 January 2026
Fiscal, Monetary, Op-Eds | Tags: Economic Growth, Energy, Governing Finance, Industrial Policy, Vietnam
Climate finance is featured prominently in international climate negotiations, and a number of countries have published climate finance strategies outlining investment needs for mitigation and adaptation. Yet a narrow focus on climate finance risks missing the point. ... continue reading

Tax Expenditures Country Report: Zambia

| 18 December 2025
Fiscal, Discussion Notes | Tags: GTED, GTETI, Tax Expenditures, Zambia
Over the years, Zambia has adopted a range of tax incentives through rate adjustments, exemptions, and deferrals—to encourage investment, promote industrial growth, and stimulate trade. These policy tools reflect the government’s broader commitment ... ... continue reading

Tax Expenditures Country Report: Mexico

, , and | 10 December 2025
Fiscal, Discussion Notes | Tags: GTED, GTETI, Mexico, Tax Expenditures
In Mexico, tax expenditures refer to all fiscal measures that reduce public revenue by granting preferential tax treatment relative to the benchmark system. These include deductions, exemptions, tax credits, differentiated rates and tax incentives ... ... continue reading

Tax Expenditure Effectiveness: Tax Expenditures Lab Flagship Report 2025

, , and | 4 December 2025
Fiscal, Discussion Notes | Tags: GTED, GTETI, Tax Expenditures
The present report discusses the determinants and explores the empirical evidence of TE effectiveness. More and more jurisdictions publish TE reports, as shown by the Global Tax Expenditures Database (GTED). In its most recent version (1.3.2), the GTED includes 116 reporting jurisdictions... ... continue reading

Tax Expenditures in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Expensive Practice?

, , and | 27 November 2025
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Domestic Revenue Mobilization, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tax Expenditures
Tax expenditures are less well understood in Sub-Saharan Africa than in other regions, and deserve closer attention given the region’s macro-fiscal challenges.  A new IMF paper sheds some additional light on TEs in SSA, their potential importance to domestic revenue mobilization, and offers a roadmap for reform.  ... continue reading

How Vietnam Can Ensure Greener Steel

and | 21 November 2025
Fiscal, Blog | Tags: Decarbonization, Energy, Industrial Policy, Vietnam
The steel industry is an important pillar of Vietnam’s economic development. It provides input for the country’s rapid infrastructure expansion, it supports key manufacturing sectors such as construction and shipbuilding, and it contributes to export revenues and industrial employment. ... continue reading

The Energy Taxation Directive and the Clean Industrial Deal

| 20 November 2025
Fiscal, Testimonies | Tags: Decarbonization, Energy, Europe, Fossil Fuel Subsidies
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today on the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD) and the Clean Industrial Deal (CID). I will start with brief remarks on the ETD and then turn to lessons the CID could draw from global experience with the use of ... continue reading