This article reviews an emerging body of evidence on relational contracts, defined as
informal arrangements sustained by the value of future interactions. We focus on developing …

Substantial research in development economics has highlighted the presence of weak
institutions, market failures, and distortions in developing countries. Yet much of the …

We examine how many and what kind of firms ultimately rely on foreign inputs, sell to foreign
markets, and are affected by trade shocks. To capture that firms can trade indirectly by …

Can taxes on consumption redistribute in developing countries? Contrary to consensus, we
show that taxing consumption is progressive once we account for informal consumption …

Exploiting a new global macro-historical database of effective tax rates, we uncover an
intriguing pro-tax-capacity effect of international trade. While effective capital tax rates have …

This chapter develops a framework with which to interpret and survey answers to the
question: how does increased openness affect aggregate welfare in a typical developing …

The value-added tax (VAT) is a cornerstone of the modern tax system. It has many desirable
properties in theory: it does not distort firms' production decisions, it is difficult to evade, and …

I leverage the staggered rollout of VAT in Pakistan to document the role of withholding
mechanism in the self-enforcement of a VAT. Focusing on firms already in the tax net, I see …

The value-added tax (VAT) is meant to be an efficient and self-enforcing tax on consumption.
Yet, being a rather sophisticated tax, the VAT can also be complex and costly to administer …

This paper investigates the tax compliance effects of India's demonetization policy, which
limited cash availability for a short period of time. Using administrative data on firms' tax …