Evolutionary Tax Reform in Emerging Economies: An Income-based Approach

Evolutionary Tax Reform in Emerging Economies: an income-based approach provides one approach to tax reform in emerging economies.

Conrad describes the context for tax reform in these economies and outlines the “Standard Approach” to tax reform, an approach that is critically evaluated. Emphasis is placed on revenue generation given to economic efficiency considerations and constraints, institutional and economic, that change through time, and the approach of the work is based on two main elements: policy, for all tax instruments, developed with the individual as the taxpayer, and policy implemented via the use of withholding taxes (advanced taxes), to the extent possible, and via the use of withholding agents, Advanced Payment Agents (APA's).

Evolutionary Tax Reform in Emerging Economies examines APAs, direct tax (income tax), and VAT, excises, and tariffs, and discusses topics such as how the base of each tax is defined, how the base might change over time, how APAs are used to collect advanced payments, and how to preserve excise tax collection at the point of production (or import).

Robert F. Conrad, Associate Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Economics, Duke University, Michael Alexeev, Professor of Economics, Indiana University

Robert F. Conrad is an emeritus faculty member at Duke University where he was Director of the Duke Center for International Development. Among other positions, Dr. Conrad served as Director of the U.S. Treasury's Tax Advisory Program for Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. He has advised more than fifty countries on tax and natural resource policies over a forty-five-year career with the support of governments, international organizations, and private foundations. He has also advised private entities and international organizations. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


Michael Alexeev is Professor of Economics at Indiana University in Bloomington. He received his PhD in Economics from Duke University in 1984. Previously he taught at George Mason University. His research interests lie mostly in the fields of institutional economics, taxation, fiscal federalism, resource economics, and the Russian economy. Prof. Alexeev's research has appeared in Journal of Economic Theory, Review of Economics and Statistics, and European Economic Review as well as in other prestigious general and field journals. He has also worked as a tax policy consultant in several developing countries and economies in transition.