Market integration in developing countries is crucial condition under which new economic policies and technological advancements will positively affect economic growth. Consider the following example: a farmer is deciding whether to implement a new technology, which, at some cost, should significantly increase output. If there is only one local market, which is not integrated to other markets in the country, increased output will just plummet the pries and return on the investment may be low or negative. If, however, markets are integrated, the excess of the product will “flow” to the central market and from there to other markets in the country, and price effect will be minimal. In this case, the farmer has much higher incentives to implement the new technology, which facilitates economic growth. I review recent advances in this field and suggest some future research directions.

This study analyzes the dynamics of tax revenues and tax rates for a large set of countries for at least last 50 years. We establish several stylized facts. First, corporate and individual income tax rates have been steadily declining, while value added tax(VAT) has been increasing for the most of the countries. The VAT was introduced in many countries in late 70s and early 80s. Second, the total revenue as % of GDP as well as the share non-tax revenues in total revenue have not changed much. Third, while the share of individual income tax has remained constant, the share of corporate tax has increased in spite of falling tax rates. Fourth, the sale tax revenue has become the most import source of revenue. The recent theoretical explanations cannot account for the observed pattern. We proposed an alternative by incorporating capital mobility into a model of the optimal capital taxation with heterogeneous agents a la Conesa et al (2009).

Research Seminar with Elena Loutskina took place on July 13.

Open lecture with Yuri Tserlukevich took place on July 1.

Open lecture with Aleksandr Vashchilko took place on June 24.

BEROC organized the Sixth Student School in Modern Economics on August 15-30, 2016.