In January 2022, the US suspended Ethiopia’s eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity Act, ending Ethiopia’s preferential trade access to the US market, and leading to a major increase in tariffs, the loss of key buyers, and, at some compan...

Increases in Brazil’s national minimum wage between 2000 and 2009 moved the country from a regime of low minimum wage bite to one of high bite. This column exploits variation in the bite of the reform across states and industries to reveal immediate ...

Taxpayers respond not only to how much they are taxed, but also to whether the system feels fair: inequities created by crude tax proxies can reduce compliance as much as high rates themselves. Better data and technology can help states improve fairn...

A household’s access to the urban sanitation network can have a significant impact on whether it pays its taxes

In addition to their impact on poverty, cash transfers can have positive spillovers to the local economy

Income support for laid-off formal workers can be beneficial even in countries with high informality, but how the benefits are disbursed matters

What are the trade-offs between unemployment benefits and severance pay?

The welfare effect of policies aimed at changing behaviours persistently may be larger than usually measured because of 'hysteresis'