Policy
Development Impact Week 2023
See my talk on how using large administrative data provides a better lens for governments to design public policy
Selected Policy Notes & Report
Firms’ Networks Under Export Exemption Regimes: Stylized Facts from Honduras
This report uses administrative tax data on firm-to-firm trade in Honduras to evaluate the degree of integration between firms receiving export-oriented tax exemptions and the local economy. We present five stylized facts regarding firms’ trade networks in Honduras and show that, across several dimensions, the networks of firms in export-oriented regimes do not differ from those of other similarly sized firms. Our findings challenge the idea that export-oriented regimes benefit firms with no connections to the local economy.
Offshore Data Leaks and Tax Enforcement in Developing Countries
The past decade has witnessed a rapid increase in data leaks from tax havens, spanning from the Luxembourg Leaks to revelations in the Panama and Pandora Papers. While these leaks often prompt political investigations into politicians with offshore accounts and calls from civil society for greater transparency in corporate ownership, they also serve as valuable resources for tax authorities investigating cross-border tax evasion and avoidance. To illustrate this point, this note analyzes three country cases—Ecuador, Honduras, and Senegal—where the authors closely collaborated with national tax administrations. It documents the distribution of offshore company formation across jurisdictions for shareholders and ultimate beneficial owners, as well as the relative prevalence of these countries in the overall dataset published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in its Offshore Leaks Database (OLD). Finally, policy recommendations are provided for enhancing personal income tax enforcement.
Gender and Property Taxes in São Paulo
This knowledge note provides new evidence on property ownership and taxation patterns across genders in São Paulo (Brazil), the largest city in the Americas, with 12 million inhabitants. We exploit microdata on all commercial and residential properties to document the share of total property and property wealth owned by women, the geographic distribution of female-owned properties, and the implications of this data for property taxes in the city.
Income Taxation of the Top Earners in Honduras: Linking Personal and Corporate Taxes
This note examines the effective income tax rates of top earners in Honduras, using a novel approach that links personal and corporate income tax data. This comprehensive income measure, achieved through collaboration with the Honduras Tax Authority (SAR), reveals a crucial link between the design of personal and corporate income taxes. The findings indicate that over 50% of total comprehensive income for the top 0.05% of earners comes from undistributed corporate profits, while distributed capital income accounts for less than 15%. The effective tax rate (ETR) for the top 0.01% of earners hovers around 25%, which is relatively flat compared to the significant drop observed in high-income countries. This is attributed to Honduras’s flat corporate income tax rate of 25% aligning with the highest marginal rate for personal income.