This paper gives an outline of the evolution of fiscal policy in Georgia. Starting in the mid-1990s, the authors break the recent Georgian history into two main periods, separated by the Rose Revolution of 2003. The first period was marked by some first efforts to generate and stabilize tax revenues, which were largely offset by the financial crisis of 1998. The Georgian budget at that time was largely financed by foreign sources. Following the Rose Revolution the country’s financial situation has improved, hyperinflation was overcome and public revenues have steadily increased due to administrative changes and tax law reforms.

This paper describes the administrative powers of local jurisdictions in Georgia, emphasizing on the tax competences and the abilities to mobilize other sources of income. Having listed and explained the types of revenues and incomes, the articles continues to show their distribution among administrative levels according to the current tax code. Following a brief overview of the main laws underlying tax regulation, the existing problems of the status quo before 2007 and some perspectives for the immediate future are outlined.

My PhD dissertation concentrates on the theoretical analysis of the way monetary and fiscal policies should be conducted in the European Monetary Union (EMU) accession countries. Importantly fiscal and monetary policies in these countries are required to satisfy the membership requirements of the EMU summarized in the Maastricht Treaty. My interest lies in identifying the implications of different monetary and fiscal policies on the compliance with the Maastricht criteria. I characterize the optimal monetary policy and also optimal interaction between monetary and fiscal policy in the EMU accession countries. I study how the Maastricht criteria affect the design of optimal policies and their ability to stabilize business cycle fluctuations. In order to address all these issues I perform the whole analysis in the framework of a two-sector small open economy model incorporating frictions such as price stickiness and distortionary taxation. The model is calibrated to match the moments of the Czech Republic economy. In Chapter 1 I study the ability of different monetary regimes to satisfy the Maastricht convergence criteria. I analyze regimes that reflect the policy choices observed in the EMU accession countries, i.e. a peg regime, a managed float and a flexible exchange rate regime with CPI inflation targeting. I find that there exists a significant trade-off between compliance with the CPI inflation criterion and the nominal interest rate criterion. Under the benchmark parameterization none of the regimes satisfies all the criteria. The sensitivity analysis reveals that the probability that some of the regimes will satisfy all the criteria increases with openness of the economy and degree of substitution between home and foreign traded goods. However the ultimate choice of the regime which satisfies all the criteria depends on the degree of exchange rate-pass through. Chapter 2 focuses on characterization of optimal monetary policy for EMU accession countries in the framework of the already developed model. I find that the optimal monetary policy in a two-sector small open economy should not only target inflation rates in the domestic sectors and aggregate output fluctuations, but also domestic and international terms of trade. Under the chosen parameterization optimal monetary policy does not satisfy the CPI inflation and the nominal interest rate criteria. The optimal constrained policy induces smaller variability of the CPI inflation and of the nominal interest rate. At the same, it is also characterized by a deflationary bias which results in targeting CPI inflation rate and nominal interest rate that are 0.7% p.a. lower than their equivalents in the reference countries. In Chapter 3 I incorporate fiscal policy by endogenising tax and debt decisions and restricting taxes to only distortionary ones. I find that targets of the unconstrained optimal monetary and fiscal policy are similar to those of the optimal monetary policy alone. Under the chosen parameterization, the optimal policy violates three Maastricht criteria: on the CPI inflation rate, the nominal interest rate and deficit to GDP ratio. Since monetary criteria play a dominant role in affecting the stabilization process of the constrained policy, CPI inflation and the nominal interest rate are characterized by a smaller variability at the expense of a higher variability of deficit to GDP ratio. The constrained policy is characterized by a deflationary bias which results in targeting the CPI inflation rate and the nominal interest rate that are lower by 1.3% p.a. than their equivalents in the countries taken as a reference. The constrained policy is also characterized by targeting surplus to GDP ratio at around 3.7%. / Mi tesis doctoral se centra en el análisis teórico de las políticas monetarias y fiscales que deben llevarse a cabo en los países candidatos a la Unión Monetaria Europea (UEM). Es importante destacar que las políticas fiscales y monetarias de estos países tienen la obligación de satisfacer las condiciones de adhesión a la UEM resumidos en el Tratado de Maastricht. Mi interés se concentra en la identificación de las consecuencias de las distintas políticas monetarias y fiscales sobre el cumplimiento de los criterios de Maastricht. Mi tesis describe tanto la política monetaria óptima como la interacción óptima entre la política monetaria y fiscal en los países candidatos a la UEM. También se analiza cómo las condiciones de Maastricht afectan al diseño de las políticas optímas y su capacidad para estabilizar las fluctuaciones del ciclo económico. A fin de abordar estas preguntas se realiza todo el análisis en el marco de un modelo de economía pequeña y abierta con dos sectores que incorpora fricciones, tales como rigidez de precios e impuestos distorsionantes. El modelo está calibrado para que coincida con los momentos estadísticos de variables económicas de la República Checa. En el capítulo 1 se estudia la capacidad de los diferentes regímenes monetarios para satisfacer las condiciones de convergencia de Maastricht. Se analizan los regímenes que reflejan las opciones políticas observadas en los países candidatos a la UEM, es decir, un régimen de paridad, de flotación administrada y de tipo de cambio flexible. Existe una fuerte relación inversa entre el cumplimiento de las condiciones de inflación y del tipo de interés nominal. Bajo la parametrización escogida ninguno de los regímenes satisface todas las condiciones. El análisis de sensibilidad pone de manifiesto que la probabilidad de que algunos de los regímenes cumplan todas las condiciones aumenta con la apertura de la economía y el grado de sustitución entre bienes nacionales y extranjeros. Sin embargo, la elección final del régimen que cumple todas las condiciones depende del efecto traspaso del tipo de cambio. En el capítulo 2 se describe la política monetaria óptima para los países adheridos a la UEM en el marco del modelo ya desarrollado. La política monetaria óptima en una economía pequeña y abierta con dos sectores no sólo debería centrarse en las tasas de inflación en los sectores domésticos y las fluctuaciones de la producción total, sino también en los términos de intercambio domésticos e internacionales. Bajo la parametrización elegida la política monetaria óptima no cumple las condiciones relacionadas a la inflación y a la tasa de interés nominal. La política óptima restringida induce menor variabilidad de la inflación y de la tasa de interés nominal. Al mismo tiempo, esta politica también se caracteriza por una tendencia deflacionaria que se traduce en la selección de los objetivos de tasa de inflación y tasa de interés nominal que son inferiores en 0.7% anual a sus equivalentes en los países de referencia. En el capítulo 3 se incorpora la política fiscal endogenizando las decisiones fiscales, de endeudamiento público y de impuestos distosionantes. Los objetivos de las políticas fiscal y monetaria son similares a los de la política monetaria óptima. Bajo la parametrización elegida, la política óptima no cumple con tres condiciones de Maastricht: la tasa de inflación, la tasa de interés nominal y el ratio déficit / PIB. Como las condiciones monetarias juegan un papel predominante en el diseño de la política restringida, la inflación y la tasa de interés nominal se caracterizan por una menor variabilidad a costa de una mayor variabilidad de la relación déficit / PIB. La política restringida se caracteriza por una tendencia deflacionaria que implica la selección de objetivos de tasa de inflación y tasa de interés nominal que son inferiores en 1.3% anual a sus equivalentes en los países tomados como referencia. La política restringida también requiere un objetivo de superávit en torno al 3,7% del PIB.

The economic and political condition of a country usually determines its fiscal policy. When Chiang Ching-Kuo was in charge of Taiwan¡¦s political and economic power between 1972-1988, his administration pushed forward many new public policies and economic growth plan in order for Taiwan to continue development. There were several different exhaustive expenditures and transfer payments. The financial resources to make this happen include tax revenue, commercial revenue, administrative revenue and debt-created revenue. The fiscal policy is necessary and important complimentary part of a government¡¦s public administrative policy and economic development plan. However, under the democratic system of Taiwan, fiscal policy is often over used or abused. On the one hand, the government¡¦s expenditure in national defense, social security, education, economic development, etc., continue to expand; on the other hand, tax revenue continue to be cut down to please the constituents. On the surface, this policy during reign of Chiang Ching-Kuo did not appear to have any financial burden; in truth the potential fiscal deficit has already began to grow. Unfortunately, this negative impact by the policy did not become apparent until the recent years. Economic growth has always been the goal of all governments around the world. When economists report on the economic development plan of his/her country, most will assent that the fiscal policy is the key to the economic growth. My dissertation is focused on the period from 1972-1988 when Chiang Ching-Kuo is in control of Taiwan. I will focus on how the financial expenditures and revenues, as well as tax burden, income distribution, public debit and credit, investment encouragement and import-export policies, together with the economic facts of the time, to correlate in further detail the meaning and affect of the past policies. Furthermore, I hope to gain new economic insights through restudying of past, and allow this dissertation be of help to the present economic administration.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-37). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-37). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1985.

This dissertation explores the effect of tax news on national and state-level economic activity. In the first chapter, I explore the effect of tax news on state economic activity. I estimate a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) model, which allows us to consider the possibility that unobserved regional factors --such as credit and fiscal conditions-- might be relevant for modelling the dynamic response of aggregate and state-level economic activity. Tax news is identified as a shock to the implicit tax rate, measured by the yield spread between the one year tax-exempt municipal bond and the one-year taxable Treasury bond. My results suggest that an increase in the implicit tax rate raises national output over much of the anticipation period. In addition, anticipated tax increases give rise to expansions in state personal income and employment. I find that the variation in the responsiveness of economic activity across states is mostly explained by differences in industrial composition as well as by some demographic characteristics such as education attainment and median age. In the second chapter, I examine the impact and transmission of the effect of tax news on U.S. economic activity. I find that news related to higher federal income taxes raise the real GDP over the anticipation period. In addition, aggregate and disaggregate industrial production, employment per worker, hours worked per worker and capacity utilization rate respond positively to tax news in the short run. An historical decomposition shows that tax news and federal funds rate shocks have been the main source of fluctuations in real GDP. In particular, tax news associated with legislation in 1986, 1993, and 2001 contributed to the movements in the real GDP. In the third chapter, I investigate whether the effect of tax news shocks differs across periods of recession and expansion. I follow Jorda’s (2005) local projection method to estimate tax news effects on the economy. I find that news about future tax cuts reduces economic activity for about four quarters and has a significant effect on the U.S. economy in the short run. The behavior of output following tax news shocks is similar in both recession and expansion phases of the business cycle and indicates that news about future tax cuts are contractionary. However, the rebound in economic activity four quarters after the news shock is higher in the recessionary phase than in the expansionary phase. Finally, the state dependent model shows that news shocks have a stronger positive impact on consumption expenditures and residential investment in the recession phase than in the expansion phase.

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy