Tax Policy Measures in Advanced and Emerging Economies: A Novel Database

IMF Working Papers, May 11, 2018

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Tax Policy Measures in Advanced and Emerging Economies: A Novel Database

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Bibliographic details

• Authors: Valerio Crispolti, Era Dabla-Norris, Pooja Karnane, Florian Misch
• Published: May 11, 2018
• Series: IMF Working Papers
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484354865.001

Overview and scope

• New, comprehensive database covering tax policy measures in 23 advanced and emerging market economies over the last four decades.
• Extracted from more than 900 OECD Economic Surveys and 37,000 tax-related news from the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation using text-mining techniques.
• Publication: IMF Working Paper No. 2018/110, Volume: 2018, Issue: 110, Pages: 60, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484354865.001, ISBN: 9781484354865, ISSN: 1018-5941.
• Authors: Valerio Crispolti, Era Dabla-Norris, Pooja Karnane, Florian Misch.
• Date: May 11, 2018.

Dataset granularity and contents

• Systematic documentation of changes in:
  • Personal income taxes (PIT)
  • Corporate income taxes (CIT)
  • Value added and sales taxes (VAT)
  • Social security contributions
  • Excise taxes
  • Property taxes
• For each tax policy measure the database records:
  • Announcement date
  • Implementation date
  • Whether the measure represents a major change
  • Whether it is part of a broader tax package
  • Whether it is phased in over several years

Methodology

• Source extraction through text-mining of:
  • More than 900 OECD Economic Surveys
  • 37,000 tax-related news items from the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation
• Emphasis on automated, systematic extraction to achieve cross-country and cross-time comparability.

Key findings and uses

• The database’s innovation lies in its granularity: rates and bases are captured for multiple tax types, enabling detailed analysis.
• The paper presents a range of stylized facts suggesting the database is useful to deepen analysis of tax policy changes for research and policy purposes.
• Subject coverage includes: Corporate income tax, Personal income tax, Revenue administration, Social security contributions, Tax type organization, Taxes, Value-added tax.
• Keywords highlighted: CIT, Corporate income tax, Global, Implementation Lags, major tax, Personal income tax, PIT, Political Economy, rate change, reform package, Social security contributions, tax measure, tax package, Tax Policy, Tax Reforms, Tax type organization, Text Mining, VAT measure, WP.

Potential applications (as indicated by the paper)

• Enabling researchers to analyze:
  • Rate and base adjustments across tax types and countries
  • Timing and sequencing of tax measures (announcement vs implementation)
  • Incidence of major reforms versus incremental changes
  • Design and phasing of tax packages

IMF Working Paper No. 2018/110 — Valerio Crispolti, Era Dabla-Norris, Pooja Karnane, and Florian Misch, May 11, 2018.

Content in this bundle

• Tax Policy Measures in Advanced and Emerging Economies: A Novel Database, WP/18/110, May 2018
  • Tax Policy Measures in Advanced and Emerging Economies: A Novel Database, WP/18/110, May 2018 (Markdown version)
  • Tax Policy Measures in Advanced and Emerging Economies: A Novel Database, WP/18/110, May 2018 (PDF)