What Do (and Don't) We Know about the Value Added Tax? A Review of Richard M. Bird and Pierre-Pascal Gendron's The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries

Author: Keen, Michael

Source: Journal of Economic Literature, Volume 47, Number 1, March 2009 , pp. 159-170(12)

Publisher: American Economic Association

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Abstract:

The VAT has taken the tax world by storm over the last fifty years, but left little trace in the academic literature. Bird and Gendron provide an impressively informed and informative account of the VAT experience in lower income countries, largely vindicating the tax and standard advice for its design. But they rightly stress too that dominant "expert opinion" on the VAT remains troublingly uninformed by serious analysis and evidence. This article focuses on some of these gaps and recent attempts to start filling them.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/jel.47.1.159

Publication date: 2009-03-01

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The Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) began publication in 1969 under the auspices of the American Economic Association with quarterly issues appearing in March, June, September, and December. JEL contains survey and review articles, book reviews, an annotated bibliography of newly published books, and a list of current dissertations in North American universities.
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